Field & chick peas

Field peas

The Plant Breeding Institute's Narrabri centre is currently a partner in field pea breeding and evaluation initiatives with the Pork CRC and Pulse Breeding Australia.

• The Pork CRC project is at the present time a targeted breeding program aimed at producing high yielding, disease resistant pea varieties with suitable grain quality characters for the pig producers of northern NSW and Queensland. This project utilizes a range of internationally derived germplasm from Plant Research NZ Ltd (PRNZL) via a long standing collaborative arrangement between the two organizations. This collaboration has resulted in the release of two varieties for northern NSW, Yarrum and Maki. A new complementary project commenced with the Pork CRC in 2008 focused on fast-tracking adapted, high yielding germplasm from crosses specifically targeting the northern region. In addition, this project will continue to integrate and screen for important disease resistances and some grain quality characters (high ME, low TIA).
• The PBA project is a northern evaluation node of the national field pea breeding program. This project essentially tests fixed lines from the centralized breeding program in southern Australia. Initially this germplasm was relatively unadapted and therefore significantly lower yielding in the northern region. More recently, targeted crosses (particularly to Yarrum) have enabled this germplasm to perform better in this environment.
• Plant Research (NZ) Ltd (PRL) is a privately owned limited liability company based at Lincoln University in Canterbury New Zealand. PRL is currently involved in a joint breeding effort for field pea in the northern areas of Australia with the University of Sydney and the Pork CRC. Involvement with the PBA historically occurred when the Managing Director of PRL, Adriana Russell worked as a plant breeder for the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food Research.

PRNZL has a network of international collaborators to access the best germplasm available and through its northern hemisphere breeding nurseries has the ability to fast track variety development.

The association with the University of Sydney program is a long standing one that has resulted in adapted varieties to the northern cropping region.

Chickpeas

At Plant Breeding Institute, Narrabri, we are working on potential pulse crops such as chickpea that contribute to sustainability of wheat based farming systems in North and North-West New South Wales. The research on chickpea is focussed mainly on major biotic (Ascochyta blight and Phytophthora Root Rot) and abiotic stresses (Heat and Drought) and quality traits. We have developed collaborative research programs with New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (NSWDPI), Tamworth and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India. We are aiming at utilisation of genetic diversity of chickpea in breeding Australian chickpea varieties with improved resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and with improved quality traits.