Varietal screening and agronomical performance of pigeonpea genotypes/cultivars against Alternaria blight

Alternaria blight is being observed appearing in alarming proportions in the post rainy season crop of the pigeonpea in eastern part of Uttar Pradesh in the recent past. A diverse collection of eighty genotypes/cultivars received from various sources were critically screened along with susceptible controls against this disease in the field at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi during 2010–11 and 2011–12. Out of eighty entries in both the years, none of the genotypes/cultivars were found to be highly resistant, six were resistant (MA 98, ICP- 7220, ICP8867, ICP-8869, IPA-7-2 and ICP-9606), three moderately resistant (DA-11, BMSR-736 and ICP-13174), fifty seven moderately susceptible and rest of the varieties were susceptible or highly susceptible. Based on the means of two years data of plant height, all eighty entries were grouped into three categories dwarf (21), medium (57) and long (2). These eighty entries were also grouped into three categories on the basis of grain weight ranged 0 to 10, 10 to 20 and > 20 gram/plant.