Pigeonpea: A New Food and Feed Legume Crop for the Southern USA.

In order to help crop diversification, meet food needs of ethnic populations, and to identify an alternative  crop for tobacco farmers, pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp), world’s fifth most important food crop, is being evaluated for forage, food, and grain trait in Virginia.   In the experiment planted on May 13, mean forage yields  were 25689, 23148, 25093, and 26,970 kg/ha;   green bean yields were 1799, 2050, 2819, and 5977 kg/ha; and shelling percentages were 40, 46, 56, and 54, respectively 150, 160, 170, and 190 days after planting (DAP).  In the experiment planted on June 17, mean forage yields were 18832 and 25216 kg/ha;  green bean yields were 1782 and 1877 kg/ha; and shelling percentages were   61 and 45, respectively 140 and 150 days after planting.  The harvest on 190 DAP indicated that four cultivars differed in proportion of dry beans in the total harvestable beans indicating that determinate growth habit of pigeonpea is not qualitative, thus, indicating an opportunity for breeding efforts to develop superior cultivars for Virginia and the mid-Atlantic region with more pronounced determinate growth habit if pigeonpea is to succeed as a source of green beans for human consumption.  The crude protein, ADF, ADFN, NDF, and NEL values for pigeonpea plants harvested approximately  150 days after planting were 23.7 and 22.8, 32.5 and 29.0, 0.57 and 0.64, 32.9 and 27.4, 63.9 and 67.7, and 0.66 and 0.70, respectively for plantings done on May 13 and June 17.  The differences among four cultivars and three intra-row populations were, generally, not significant. Detailed results of these and other experiments conducted during 2010 will be presented and discussed.