FORAGE YEILD AND COMPITITION INDICES OF CEREALS MIXED INTERCROPPING WITH FORAGE LEGUMES IN SULAIMANI REGION

The present study was conducted in Sulaimani region at two different locations, Kanipanka and Qlyasan during winter season of 2019-2020 to estimate the response of forage yield and some competition indices to the effect of crop pure stands and their mixtures of barley and triticale intercropped with narbon vetch and grass pea with some different patterns. The experiment was designed according to Completely Randomized Block Design with three replications. As the average of both location the maximum green forage yield was produced by pure narbon vetch 32.610 ton ha-1, while pure barley produce maximum dry forage yield and dry matter % reached 5.506 ton ha-1 and 8.55% at booting stage respectively, but the crop mixture barley/grass pea at a rate 2:1 produce maximum green and dry forage yield 32.083 and 5.616 ton ha-1 respectively at booting stage. The crop mixture barley/vetch 1:1 gave maximum dry matter% 17.88% at the same stage. The highest value for total LER was 1.401recorded by the mixture of triticale/grass pea at elongation stage, while the highest relative crowding coefficient was 1.285 recorded by the same mixture at a rate 1:1 at the same cutting stage. Maximum competitive ratio for cereals was 3.652 recorded by barley in the mixture barley/grass pea 1:2 at elongation stage, while for legume it was 2.292 for narbon vetch in the mixture triticale/vetch 2:1 at booting stage.

Weather relation of rice-grass pea crop sequence in Indian Sundarbans

In order to develop weather-based yield prediction models for rice and grass pea in coastal saline zone of West Bengal, the experiments were conducted with rice (cv. CR 1017) and grass pea (cv. Bio L 212) in the rainy and winter seasons, respectively of 2016-17 and 2017-18. Rice was sown in nursery bed on six different dates starting from June 15 to July 19 at weekly interval in both rainy seasons in two different land situations viz. medium upland and medium lowland. Likewise, grass pea was sown on six different dates just before harvesting of rice. It was observed that both early sown rice and grass pea resulted in higher grain yield and took more time to mature under medium lowland situation irrespective of sowing dates. Correlation study revealed that air temperature during sowing to transplanting phase exhibited significant positive correlation with grain of rice in medium upland (Tmax = 0.76**, Tmin = 0.69*) and medium lowland (Tmax = 0.93**, Tmin = 0.81**) situations. On the other hand, maximum temperature and total solar radiation during 100% emergence to 100% flowering stage were negatively associated with the grain yield of grass pea in both medium upland (Tmax = -0.69*, Accumulated solar radiation = -0.73**) and medium lowland (Tmax = -0.74**, Acc. solar radiation = -0.77**) situations. Grain yield of rice and grass pea could be predicted with 94.4% and 87.4% predictability. Pre-harvest forecasting of grain yield was possible with 77.3% for rice and 83.8% for grass pea.

Current Perspectives on Reducing the β-ODAP Content and Improving Potential Agronomic Traits in Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.)

Grass pea is well-established as one of the most resilient and versatile crops that can thrive under extreme climatic circumstances such as cold, heat, drought, salt-affected soils, submergence, and excessive rainfall along with resistance to several diseases and pests. However, despite the awareness of its virtues, its cultivation globally has decreased recently owing to the presence of a neurotoxin, β-N-oxalyl-L-α, β-diaminopropionic acid (β-ODAP), in the seedlings and seeds of this legume, which has been reported to cause neurolathyrism, a non-reversible neurological disorder in humans and animals. Significant repositories of Lathyrus germplasm are available across countries that have provided access to a wide range of agro-morphological traits as well as the low β ODAP content. Efforts have been made worldwide to use these germplasms for the genetic enhancement of grass pea to make this food safe for human consumption. Efforts on molecular breeding of this crop are also lagging. However, during the last decade, the research scenario has changed with some efforts being made toward improving this climate resilient pulse in terms of genomic resources. Molecular markers have also been used to evaluate the interspecific diversity as well as the phylogenetic relationship among the species and mapping studies. Intron-targeted amplified polymorphic, genomic simple sequence repeat, resistance genes analogs, and disease resistance markers developed for other legume species have been successfully cross-amplified in grass pea. Transcriptomic studies have recently been undertaken on grass pea by deploying several second-generation sequencing techniques. In addition, a few studies have attempted to unveil the genes and the underlying mechanism conferring biotic and abiotic stress or regulating the pathway of β-ODAP in grass pea. Proteomics has accelerated the identification studies on differential proteomes in response to salinity and low-temperature stress conditions for unveiling the common signaling pathways involved in mitigating these abiotic stresses and in discovering differentially regulated proteins. In grass pea, a metabolomics approach has been used to identify the metabolic processes associated with β-ODAP synthesis. Genome sequencing of grass pea is under way which is expected to be vital for whole-genome re-sequencing and gene annotation toward the identification of genes with novel functions. Recently, a draft genome sequence of grass pea was developed, and some efforts are underway to re-sequence a diverse panel of grass pea comprising 384 germplasm lines. Owing to the scantiness of a successful transformation protocol, research on the application of modern approaches of genome editing like the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) or CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system for the engineering of signaling pathways or regulatory mechanisms seeks immediate attention to reduce the β-ODAP content in seeds and to improve the potential agronomic traits in grass pea.

Adaptation of Grain Legumes to Terminal Drought after Rice Harvest in Timor-Leste

In Timor-Leste, most paddy fields are abandoned after rice harvest due to limited water resources for another rice production cycle, particularly in lowland coastal areas. There is substantial scope for including legumes and other crops in the rice–fallow system in Timor-Leste. This study investigated the adaptation of grain legumes to terminal drought. The experiment was undertaken in 2018 and 2019 at field sites in Vemase and Laleia, respectively, on the northeast coast of Timor-Leste. The experiments used a split-plot design with two factors (water treatment and species) and three blocks (Vemase site) or four blocks (Laleia site). In 2018, the water treatments were well-watered control (W0), water withheld from flower initiation to maturity (W1), and water withheld after seedling establishment to maturity (W2). In 2019, the water treatments were well-watered control (W0) and water withheld from flower initiation to maturity (W1). Grain legumes were mungbean and soybean tested against grass pea (cv. Ceora), a well-known drought-adapted grain legume. The measured parameters included soil water content, crop phenology, plant growth and development, yield and yield components. The experiments revealed that mungbean is the most suitable grain legume crop after rice harvest under moderate drought conditions, while soybean is the preferred option under severe drought. Grass pea could be the best adaptive grain legume under severe drought in Timor-Leste when combined with the worsening conditions of climate change.

Comparative Physiology of Drought and Salinity Stress in Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) Seedlings

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of iso-osmotic potentials of drought and salinity on physiological parameters of grass pea seedlingsas well as to compare varietal responses. Study Design: Completely randomized design. Place and Duration of Study: In the years 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, laboratory research on grass pea varieties BK-14 and Pratik was conducted in the Department of Plant Physiology, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, India. Methodology: The effect of iso-osmotic potential of salinity and drought stress was studied using NaCl (50, 100 and 200 mM ) and PEG 6000 (10, 12 and 18%) solutions with -0.2, -0.4, and -0.8 MPa osmotic potential, and the experiment was carried out in sand culture using modified Hoagland solution under diffused light, at about 80±1% relative humidity (R.H.) and a temperature of 22±1oC. Data on different physiological and biochemical parameters were recorded after ten days of seedling growth in sand culture. Statistical analysis was performed on the mean data in all cases following completely randomized design (CRD) by application of INDOSTAT version 7.1 software. Results: The germination of grass pea seeds was more severely affected by drought stress than salinity. Both stresses had a negative impact on most of the parameters studied except for leaf proline and sugar The impact became more pronounced as the severity of the stress increased. The highest intensity of drought stress was found to be more detrimental to leaf protein and relative water content in BK 14, while Pratik was more drastically affected by the highest level of salinity. Drought was found to have a significant negative impact on leaf starch in both the grass pea varieties. The highest concentration of PEG led to a remarkable increase in leaf proline. Conclusion: The mild to moderate levels (-0.2 and -0.4 MPa) of stress did not produce much severe effects on the grass pea seedlings, but the highest intensity of stress with an osmotic potential of -0.8 MPa mostly produced drastic effects. There were varietal differences in response to two abiotic stresses. In general, drought stress was found to cause more negative effects on seedling than iso-osmotic potential of salinity stress.

​Effect of Irrigation Regimes and Phosphorus Fertilization on Water-use Efficiency, Phosphorus-agronomic Efficiency and Yield of Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) Ecotypes

Background: Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is a crop of immense economic significance. It is one of the most resilient to climate changes and to be survival food during drought-triggered famines. Methods: In a field study split factorial experiment based on a randomized complete block design with 3 replications were used, effects of irrigation regimes (50, 75 and 100% evaporation of Pan class A) and different rates of phosphorous fertilizer (triple superphosphate 0, 60 and 120 kg/ha) on growth and yield of two grass pea ecotypes (Lalehzar and Sharekord) in Lalezar area (Kerman province, Iran) was carried out during 2018 and 2019. Result: The results showed that drought stress reduced grass pea seed yield (401 kg/ha-1) and biological yield (863 kg/ha-1) and this reduction was depended on the severity of stress. In the other side, application of phosphorous fertilizer (60 kg/ha-1) increased grass pea yield (2401 kg/ha-1). This means that phosphorus fertilizer could partiaiiy offset the effect of drought stress and had a significant effect on the water use efficiency and phosphorus agronomic efficiency. Finally, drought stress, either no-application phosphorus fertilizer, could decrease yield. Overally, Shahrekord ecotype showed the higher and most desirable grain yield (2401 kg/ha-1), biological yield (5612 kg/ha-1), grain water use efficiency and biological water use efficiency, respectively, with (0.74 and 1.72 m3 water/ha-1) and phosphorus agronomic efficiency (18.76 kg yield/kg P) to the applied treatments (75% irrigation+ triple superphosphate fertilizer 60 kg/ha).