[en] The food prices including pulses were beginning to increase from 2008, something that was not expected to happen before 2020. It was due to climate change, a scarcity of good arable land, water and nutrients. With these obstacles, we must produce almost double than what we are producing now to achieve food security by 2050. It can be achieved through crop improvement. Crop improvement is the art and science of changing the genetic make of crop plant in desire direction through various method of plant breeding. Mutation breeding is one of the techniques which utilize the physical and chemical mutagens to create genetic variability. Till date more than 3200 mutant varieties have been developed worldwide in which two physical mutagens i.e. X-rays and gamma rays have major contributions. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre is one of the leading institutes in India where nuclear energy is used for crop improvement, which resulted in to development of 43 improved high yielding varieties in different crops including 19 varieties of pulse crops. These varieties are contributing significantly to production of pulses and ultimately to national food security. (author)

[en] Pulse crops, among the legumes form an important source of the dietary protein of the predominantly vegetarian population of India. The biotic and abiotic stresses are the major deterrents in improving the yield and productivity of pulses. Mutation breeding plays a significant role in the development of biotic and abiotic stresses resistant varieties leading to higher production and overall remuneration of the farming community. The biotic stress resistant varieties also play an important role in the ecological balance, by reducing the dependency on pesticides. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay has been instrumental in the development of 15 high yielding, disease resistant mutant varieties in 4 pulse crops. (author)

[en] Grain legumes are the second most important group of crops contributing the dietary protein in India. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, is one of the centres for pulse improvement and has been instrumental in the development of 7 mungbean, 4 urdbean, 3 pigeonpea and 1 cowpea varieties through induced mutation. Efforts are on to develop resistance genes for powdery mildew (PM), yellow mosaic virus (YMV), and cercospora leaf spot diseases (CLS) in mungbean and bruchids in urdbean. Inheritance of resistance against a newly identified PM race in mungbean was studied. In mungbean, pre-harvest sprouting and drought resistant lines have been developed. Recombinant inbred lines were developed to tag important disease resistance genes. DNA markers were used to assess the genetic diversity. Potential gene(s) in pigeonpea (plant type, cytoplasmic male sterility), mungbean (YMV resistance) and urdbean (YMV and bruchid resistance) have been tagged using molecular markers. The mutation breeding has been complementing and supplementing the conventional breeding for improving the production scenario of pulses in India. (author)

[en] Pulse crops, with high protein content, are valuable components of Indian agriculture as they can satisfy the nutritional demands of our growing population. However, these crops with narrow genetic diversities, have received comparatively less research attention. Mutation breeding has been successful in the genetic improvement of these orphan, yet important pulse crops such as pigeonpea, mungbean, black gram and cowpea. Also, induced mutagenesis has the potential to enrich the genetic resources in these crops, equipping the different crop improvement programs with arsenal to meet the challenges of climate change. Concurrently, augmenting the genomic resources is equally significant for accelerated and targeted breeding of pulse crops. (author)