AGRICULTURE

PAU develops new pea variety
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 28
A new variety of pea, Punjab-89 has been developed, which gives first picking in 85-90 days besides having other good horticultural traits. This was revealed by Dr J.S. Kanwar, Head, Department of Vegetable Crops, PAU.

According to Dr Mohan Singh, this is a main season variety. The best time to sow this variety is between October 15 to November 15. The plants of this variety are medium dwarf, vigorous, having more number of well filled pods (28-30 per plant). The pods are dark green, long, very attractive having 9-10 grains per pod. The shelled peas are very sweet and shelling out turn is more than 55 per cent. Average green pod yield is 60 q/acre.

Giving further details, Dr P.S Brar said pea is highly nutritive containing high percentage of digestible proteins (7%) along with carbohydrates and vitamins. It is also a rich source of minerals. In Punjab, the area under pea cultivation is 17.21 thousand hectares with a production of 103.33 thousand tonnes. The information about agronomic practices for the crop can be obtained from Department of Vegetable Crops, PAU.