June 18, 2025
The University of Queensland has developed five new commercial varieties of pigeonpea as a step towards the legume being grown more widely in Australia.
A program at UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) has developed the drought-resistant pigeonpea varieties for tropical conditions.
Project lead Dr Mahen Sabampillai said the project could trigger a new industry in Australia.
“These pigeonpea varieties released by Woods Group will be the first commercial varieties registered for human consumption in Australia,” Dr Mahen said.
“While maintaining yield potential, these varieties have a significantly shorter crop cycle, maturing in 100 to 120 days compared to the traditional 150 to 200 days.
“We have also reduced the height of these varieties to 80 to 120 centimetres tall to enable machine harvesting of the crop.
“Our seeds are the optimum size of 10 to 12 grams per hundred seeds, and the seeds are easy to split.”
Pigeonpea is widely consumed in India, Iraq, the Philippines, south-east Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
