Development of Genetically Improved Yellow and Green Field Pea Varieties and Germplasm Lines for Canadian Pea Growers

Crop Pea
Start Date2010
End Date2013
Principal InvestigatorBing, Deng-Jin , AAFC Lacombe
MPSG Financial Support$10,000 / year
ReportInterim-Report

Research Objectives

  1. Develop and evaluate elite yellow and green field pea breeding lines currently in the breeding program for variety registration and commercialization in Canada
  2. Develop high yielding yellow and green field pea lines with improved lodging resistance, seed visual quality and resistance to mycosphaerella blight, downy mildew and fusarium root rot
  3. Identify pea germplasm lines with improved resistance or tolerance to mycosphaerella blight, downy mildew and fusarium root rot

Project Description

Field pea plays a significant role in Canada’s economy. It is the largest pulse crop in Canada with approximately 1.47 million hectares grown per year (AAFC 2008). Canada is the largest producer and exporter of field pea in the world. Increased awareness of the benefits of sustainable agriculture by the growers and the various levels of government has resulted in renewed interest in field peas for crop diversification, value-added processing and products. The ability of field pea to fix nitrogen promotes better environmental stewardship by reducing fertilizer application for pea and the subsequent crops, which makes field pea readily fit into crop rotation systems in western Canada. The pea crop value chain in Canada includes the seed industry, commercial growers, processors (dry seed and value-added), export and domestic use. The crop value chain is based in-part, on elite field pea varieties developed in Canada. Therefore, development of field (yellow and green) pea varieties with improved yield, disease resistance and seed quality has been identified as a major research priority by the Canadian pulse growers.

Improvement of seed yield and seed quality is often incremental. Pea cultivars developed in the last 10 years have improved lodging resistance, seed quality and high yield. However, further improvement of seed yield and quality is severely affected by biotic and abiotic stresses. Mycosphaerella blight, fusarium root rot, downy mildew and powdery mildew are four major diseases affecting field pea crop in Canada.