Aussies Get New Lentil Varieties

SYDNEY - Mar 7/07 - SNS -- Australian lentil growers will have two new ascochyta blight and botrytis grey mould lentil varieties available to them in 2008.

Coming from the recently established national pulse breeding program, Pulse Breeding Australia (PBA), supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), the new varieties are the red lentil Nipper and the green lentil Boomer.

One of PBA's objectives is to increase lentil production and profitability for growers by developing superior red and green lentil varieties through greater productivity, increased reliability of yield and quality, reduced inputs and new market access.

Department of Agriculture and Food pulse researcher, Kerry Regan, said breeding efforts focused on lines with appropriate phenology, improved disease resistance, harvestability, seed quality and improved tolerance to soil constraints and herbicides.

Evaluating germplasm at an early breeding stage in WA helps identify lentil lines suited to the western region and other Australian low rainfall environments.

A number of breeding lines, which performed well in 2005 and 2006 in Western Australia, show potential for future commercial release.

Given last year's dry conditions, further breeding trials in 2007 are necessary to provide reliable information and validate the performance of the most advanced breeding lines. These lines will be in the pipeline for commercialisation over the next five years.

Nipper is unlikely to perform better than Digger and Cassab in Western Australia because it's more suited to longer season eastern Australian environments. However, Boomer offers a good alternative for growers if they would like to produce green lentils.