ICRISAT scientists, working with Indian programme counterparts, developed the world's first cytoplasmic-nuclear male sterility (CMS)-based commercial hybrid in a food legume, the pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.]. The CMS, in combination with natural outcrossing of the crop, was used to develop viable hybrid breeding technology. Hybrid ICPH 2671 recorded 47% superiority for grain yield over the control variety 'Maruti' in multilocation on-station testing for 4 years. In the on-farm trials conducted in five Indian states, mean yield of this hybrid (1396 kg/ ha) was 46.5% greater than that of the popular cv. 'Maruti' (953 kg/ha). Hybrid ICPH 2671 also exhibited high levels of resistance to Fusarium wilt and sterility mosaic diseases. The outstanding performance of this hybrid has led to its release for cultivation in India by both a private seed company (as 'Pushkal') and a public sector university (as 'RV ICPH 2671'). Recent developments in hybrid breeding technology and high yield advantages realized in farmers' fields have given hope for a breakthrough in pigeonpea productivity.

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A total of 310 Barley accessions collected from ICARDA, Lebanon and grown in Indian condition at ICARDA-IRP (India Research Platform), Amlaha, (M.P.) were analyzed for morphological and genetic variability using nine agro-morphological traits i.e. Plant height (cm), number of tillers per plant, days to heading, number of ear heads per pant, length of ear (cm), number of spikelets per earhead, number of grains per earhead, yield per plant (g), and 1000-grain weight (g). The highest coefficient of variation as a result of highest diversity among the genotypes were found for grains per earhead (37.5%), spikelets per earhead (37.5%), yield per plant (35.3%), tillers per plant (31.3%) and earhead per plant (31.2%). However, ear length (16.9%), days to heading (15.4%), 1000-grain weight (13.5%) and plant height (11.2%) have conributued less to diversity with lower cofficient of variation. In cluster analysis, all the characters were used to construct a distance matrix using the Euclidian coefficient, and used to generate dendrogram showing similarity among all the genotypes, distance coefficient ranged between 0 and 200 which reveal the genetic diversity among genotypes. These exotic accessions evaluated can be further used for primary or secondary introduction in Indian breeding program.