Six mungbean parental lines and their fifteen F1s produced from half-diallel mating design were investigated for combining ability and heterosis in terms of a yield and its components. Results showed highly significant variations among the parents and F1s, suggesting a wide genetic variability for the studied characters. Analysis of variance indicated that genotypes mean square values, general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) were highly significant (p ≤ 0.001) for all measured traits except for days to flowering, days to maturity, and pod length indicating genetic diversity of parents and both additive and non-additive gene effects in the inheritance of the measured traits. A higher effect of SCA than GCA for plant height and seeds per pod suggests the preponderance of non-additive gene effects in the expression of characters. Based on per se performance and GCA, BARI Mung-1, PS-7, and BMXK1-14004 were the best general combiners for yield per plant. In the context of SCA, hybrids BMXK1-14004 × Sonali mung, BMXK1-14004 × PS-7, BMXK1-14004 × BINA Mung-8, Sukumar × PS-7, and BARI Mung-1 × BINA Mung-8 were good specific combiners. BMXK1-14004 × Sonali mung and BMXK1-14004 × PS-7 were the best heterotic hybrids for yield and yield-contributing traits. These parents and crosses could be utilized for further use in breeding programs to improve yields in mungbean crops.

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) is the third-most important grain legume in the world. In Bangladesh, it is important for human food and nutrition, animal feed, and sustainable rice-based cropping systems. However, lentil area is declining due to competition with other winter and spring crops, particularly irrigated spring rice (boro rice; Oryza sativa L.). To increase lentil production, the extra-early (<95 d) lentil line LRIL-22-70 was selected to grow in the short fallow period between monsoon and spring rice under a proposed new cropping pattern. LRIL-22-70 was identified from a recombinant inbred line population through rigorously evaluated in diverse agro-ecological conditions of Bangladesh and released for commercial cultivation by Pulses Research Centre, BARI, as 'BARI Masur-9' (Reg. no. CV-36, PI 700307) in 2018. BARI Masur-9 is a transgressive segregant for earliness (matures in <93 d) and fits well in the new monsoon rice-lentil-spring rice cropping pattern. It is a medium-seeded (2.38 g 100 -1 seed) cultivar with high tolerance to Stemphylium blight. The average seed yield of BARI Masur-9 was 1,201 kg ha -1 , with higher concentrations of Fe (73 mg kg −1 ) and Zn (61 mg kg −1 ) compared with other genotypes; thus, BARI Masur-9 contributes to combatting micronutrient malnutrition in Bangladesh. BARI Masur-9, the first extra-early lentil cultivar, can successfully be grown to replace fallow between rice as a new cropping pattern monsoon rice-lentil (BARI Masur-9)-spring rice in about 8 million ha in Bangladesh, eastern Indian states, and eastern Nepal. INTRODUCTIONLentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is an important legume crop grown globally (Muehlbauer et al., 1995

Ensuring food security for the rapidly increasing population and changing climatic scenarios are requisites for exploiting the genetic divergence of food crops. A study was undertaken to sort out an early maturing chickpea variety for fitting easily between rice-rice cropping systems in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain of Bangladesh. The trial was comprised of eight elite lines of chickpea and executed at various localities in Bangladesh from 2014-15 to 2017-18. The result explored the chickpea genotype, BARI Chola-11 remained superior to the rest of the elite genotypes for having a short maturity period (100-106 days), and lesser days to 50% flowering (47-55 days). The same genotype was recorded to have robust vegetative and reproductive yield attributes including plant height (49-57 cm), podsplant −1 (37-50), and optimum 100 seed weight (19.5-20.6 g). Owing to better yield attributes, BARI Chola-11 resulted in the maximum seed yield (1200-1500 kg ha -1 ) of chickpea and might be recommended for general adoption in the region for boosting nutritional security status through improved productivity under changing climate.