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Lathyrus sativus (grasspea or chickling pea) is a popular food and feed crop in certain Asian and African countries, such as Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, because of its resistance to drought, flood, and moderate salinity and because of its low input requirements. When other crops fail under adverse climatic conditions, L. sativus can become the only available food source for the poor and sometimes is a survival food during famine. Although seeds of L. sativus are tasty and protein rich, overconsumption can cause an upper-neurone disease known as neurolathyrism, an irreversible paralysis of the lower limbs. The level of this compound in the dry seeds varies widely, depending on genetic factors and environmental conditions.The ability of L. sativus to provide an economic yield under most adverse conditions has made it a popular crop in subsistence farming in many developing countries, and it offers a great potential for use in other parts of the world. In the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region, under low-rainfall conditions there is a tendency for increasing monoculture of cereals, such as barley. The incorporation of grasspea in the rotation can make the production system more sustainable by improving soil fertility and breaking disease and pest cycles.The objectives of the crop improvement programme of International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) for this species are to improve its yield potential and nutritional quality through the reduction of its content of the neurotoxin 3-(N-oxalyl)-L-2,3-diaminopropionic acid (β-ODAP). Low-neurotoxin lines having 0.07% to 0.02% β-ODAP were developed by using conventional breeding methods and by developing somaclonal variants.

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Loss of seeds from mature pods is common in Vicia sativa L., an important annual, resown forage legume in West Asia and North Africa. Pod shattering restricts its use as a leguminous forage crop. This paper reports the results of germplasm evaluation for non‐shattering pods and of breeding and selection to improve seed retention. Wide variation in pod‐shattering exists between common vetch ecotypes collected from different regions. Three wild mutants with almost completely non‐shattering pods were identified and isolated for use as a genetic resource in cross breeding programmes. Genetic studies revealed that the non‐shattering character in the wild types of common vetch is due to a simple recessive gene, whereas shattering in the cultivated types is due to an allelic dominant pair of genes. Incorporation of the non‐shattering gene into agronomically‐promising lines was achieved by back‐crossing. Lines having an average of 95—97 % non‐shattering pods were obtained, as compared to 40—50 % in the original cultivated lines which represents a major agronomic advance in common vetch breeding. The importance of seed retention to the economics of seed production is discussed.