USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council - Dry Pea

Objective: 1. Develop green pea varieties that have dark green seeds that are resistant to seed bleaching, yellow pea varieties that are large seeded and have good color characteristics and large-seeded marrowfat varieties with good color retention that will be competitive in Asian markets. 2. Incorporate resistance to common root rot, fusarium wilt, powdery mildew, pea enation mosaic virus (PEMV), and bean leaf roll virus (BLRV) into agronomically and market acceptable dry pea varieties. 3. Develop dry pea varieties with greater agronomic adaptation including increased seed yield, greater standing ability, shatter resistance and resistance to mechanical seed damage. 4. Develop superior lines of green and yellow peas with acceptable quality traits such as resistance to seed bleaching for green and morrowfat peas, hydration percentage, cooking time, color before and after cooking, and texture after cooking.

Anticipated Benefits and Information Transfer: The priority of this project is to reduce the damage to the pea crop from viruses, root and foliar diseases, improve seed yield and quality. An additional, priority for this project is to improve color quality of dry peas. Results will be made available in the form of new varieties of dry peas (green, yellow and marrowfat) with improved yield, disease resistance and quality. Releases will be documented in a refereed journal.