**4. Historical perspective**

*Legume Crops – Characterization and Breeding for Improved Food Security*

and intensive genetic and cytogenetic investigations. These legumes have a strategic position in Southeast Asian countries for nutritional security and sustainable crop production. Due to rich in quality protein, minerals and vitamins, they are inseparable ingredients in the diets of a vast majority of Indian population. When supplemented with cereals, they provide a perfect mix of essential amino acids with high biological value. Mungbean has the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in symbiotic association with Rhizobium bacteria, which enables them to meet their own nitrogen requirement and also benefit the succeeding crops [1]. These crops have also been reported to smother weed flora appreciably (20–45%) when intercropped with tall cereals and consequently, reduce the cost incurred on weed control [2]. On account of short duration and photo-thermo insensitivity, they are considered excellent crops for crop intensification and diversification. A seed of mungbean is highly nutritious containing 24–28% protein, 1.0–1.5% fat, 3.5–4.5% fibre, 4.5–5.5% ash and 59–65% carbohydrates on dry weight basis [3] and provide 334–344 kcal energy [4]. Mungbean protein is considered to be easily digestible. The dried grains of mungbean can be split or eaten whole after cooking and made into a soup or dhal. The iron availability in mungbean improves substantially to 7.2–11.3% through cooking practices such as soaking, fermenting and sprouting [5]. Mungbean is also widely relished as sprouts. The germinated grains have higher nutritional value as compared with asparagus or mushroom [6, 7]. Green pods and seeds can be cooked as vegetables. These pulses are frequently fed to children, convalescents and geriatrics or used when "breaking" a long fasting period owing to their ease of digestibility. The haulms are used for fodder and the beans husks and small broken pieces are useful as a feed concentrate. The crops are also grown for hay, green manure and cover crop. Mungbean makes better hay than urad bean as the stems and leaves are less hairy.

Mungbean is of Indian origin as is evidenced by their occurrence at archeological sites in the continent. *Vigna radiata* is native to north eastern India-Myanmar regions of Asia [8, 9]. *Vigna radiata var. sublobata* Verdc. is the closest wild relatives of the cultivated mungbean, respectively, and are regarded as their putative progenitors [10–13]. Based on morphological evidence alone, many researchers have considered var. sublobata as progenitor of mungbean [14, 15]. The detailed morpho-chemotaxonomic studies on wide collections of var. sublobata [12, 13, 16, 17], cross ability and chromosome pairing evidence [11, 18–20] have led to the conclusion that var. sublobata is a polymorphic taxon; two distinct morphological groups of it are the wild progenitors of mungbean and can be designated as *V. radiata* var. sublobata. The wild collections have characteristics conducive to domestication like annual growth habit, erect plant type, photoperiod insensitivity, more pods with high number of seeds, and smaller leaves. The present day cultivars of mungbean might have originated from new combinations of the already existing variants, changes in growth habit and seed size have been brought about by possible accumulation of recessive mutant genes [21]. Moreover, during domestication the dehiscent nature of pods and seed hardness of the wild progenitors have been selected out.

Mungbean is tropical grain legumes widely grown in the sub-tropical countries of South and Southeast Asia [22, 23]. These legumes are grown at low to

**50**

**3. Ecology**

**2. Origin and domestication**

Pure lines continued even during the early 40s to mid from these landraces were isolated on the basis of colour of stem, foliage, flower, unripe and ripe pods, seed colour and texture and other morphological features. The types selected were best suited in their respective regions mostly under low management. In mungbean, the first promising variety released was Type 1 for cultivation in Uttar Pradesh in 1948. It is a local selection from Muzaffarpur (Bihar). A large number of varieties were developed afterwards through selection from local materials and were released in different states between 1948 and 1970. Some of the important varieties developed through selection are Co 1 and ADT 1 (Tamil Nadu), Jalgaon (Maharashtra), Khargone 1, Krishna (Madhya Pradesh), and G 65 (Punjab). Jawahar 45 (Hybrid 45) released in 1971 in Madhya Pradesh and Type 44 released in Uttar Pradesh in 1972 was perhaps the first varieties developed through hybridization. Afterwards, a number of varieties were developed mainly through selection from the germplasm [24, 25]. Earlier a variety Virat has been released from ICAR—Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh; it is mature by 55 days only and fitted to rice wheat cropping system. This has resulted in development of appropriate production technologies and improved varieties besides basic knowledge on these crops.
