Development of drought tolerant, insect and wilt resistant variety of lentil (Lens culinaris L): Jammu lentil-144 for rainfed areas of J & K

Wild Lens taxa are invaluable sources of useful traits for broadening genetic base of cultivated lentil. Interspecific crosses were made successfully between cultivated (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris) and wild lentils (L. culinarisssp.culinaris and Lens ervoides). Substantially, higher variations for seed yield and its attributing traits were exhibited in fixed recombinant lines, indicating transgressive segregation. In this study, a pollinator line ILWL 30 belongs to secondary gene pool (GP2) i.e. wild line possessing desirable traits like higher number of pods, earliness; drought resistant and short inter-nodal distance was crossed to the promising breeding line ILL-10829 received from ICARDA, Syria. More than 160 recombinant lines were developed and evaluated in the advanced stages under rainfed conditions of Jammu region (Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Udhampur & Resai districts) during Rabi 2016-17 and 2017-18. On the basis of mean data for yield, yield attributing traits, insect-pest resistance and wilt resistance, a new variety under release namely Jammu Lentil 144(ILL10829 x ILWL30) possessing higher seed yield by 2.45 q/ha with major targeted traits i.e. earlier in maturity by 30 days in comparison to standard check PL406 and highly resistant against wilt, root rot, pod borer and aphids. This is a new variety under release and is being a better option for commercial cultivation in Rabi under rainfed areas of Jammu region. The heat use efficiency of RIL 144 was 64.8% higher than the control, whereas 24.0% higher over RIL 156. Jammu Lentil 144 observed 24.1 and 15.3% higher RWUE over the control and RIL 156. This new variety completed its maturity by the end of March and escaped from the rise in temperature during the month of April. Hence, a new drought, insect & disease resistant variety namely Jammu Lentil 144 is developed for the rainfed areas (Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Reasi and Udhampur) of J & K, which will become boon to the lentil growing farmers.