Overview
Pigeon pea is a widely grown grain legume that is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. In regions such as South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa the crop plays a key role in supporting food security, enhancing soil fertility, and sustaining household incomes of smallholder farmers.The crop’s drought tolerance, nutritional qualities, and soil improvement potential make it a promising crop for sustainable agriculture in many climate-challenged regions. However, its production is vulnerable to high temperature events, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Improving pigeon pea’s resilience to heat stress in order to improve yields has become a priority for scientists and policymakers. Yet while the above-ground effects of heat stress on yields are being studied by CGIAR institutes, there is limited understanding of how pigeon pea’s root system is affected by rising temperatures.
Objectives and activities
The goal of the research is to improve pigeon pea’s resilience to heat stress. The research teams will study how temperature affects root growth, rhizosphere signaling and their interplay in microbial recruitment, nodule formation, nitrogen fixation, and overall plant performance.
The work will involve:
- identifying and selecting heat-tolerant pigeon pea genotypes for breeding programs aimed at developing more resilient cultivars
- identifying and characterising key temperature-adaptive root traits and heat-tolerant rhizobia strains, enhancing nodulation, nitrogen fixation, and overall plant performance under heat stress
- creating a comprehensive understanding of how rising soil temperatures affect root-soil interactions, including nutrient uptake, water acquisition and microbial dynamics
- developing strategies to optimise root growth, soil properties and rhizosphere signalling to improve the performance of pigeon pea, other legumes and VACS crops.
The problem
Project teams
UK science institutes
University of Nottingham
University of Warwick
CGIAR
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Local partners
Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO)
Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) Chitedze Agricultural Research Station, Department of Agricultural Research (CARS)
Indian Institute of pulses research (IIPR)
Professor Jayashankar Telengana State Agricultural University (PJTSU)
University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS)
Where the teams will be working
The teams will be working in India, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania
