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'Magic' pea hybrid could help feed the world

11 March 2009

IT HAS taken more than 30 years, but the world’s first hybrid legume has at last arrived, promising to raise yields by as much as 40 per cent.

Legumes are a cheap and vital source of protein for millions of people around the world, especially in Africa and Asia, so high-yielding hybrids could have huge nutritional benefits. But cultivated legumes have always been self-pollinating making it difficult to create hybrids.

Now a hybrid variety of pigeon pea has been developed by Kulbhushan Saxena and colleagues at the , in Patancheru, Andhra…

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