Protein content of Lathyrus sativus collected from diverse locations

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) is a legume crop having great potential for global food security due to its exceptional tolerance to drought and flooding. It has a very hardy and penetrating root system hence can be grown on a wide range of soil types. Compared with other legumes, it is resistant to many pests including storage insects. This protein-rich legume crop serves as a food source for poor farmers when other crops fail under harsh environmental conditions. Breeding programmes involving genotypes combining high yield with high protein content are going on all over the world. This prompted us to investigate the variation for protein content in our grass pea collection. In the present investigation, 37 local genotypes collected from the different districts of Bihar and adjoining districts of Jharkhand and 3 national checks were subjected for protein estimation by Lowry method. The genotype (IC127616) contains highest protein and the LKH L-15 genotype contains lowest protein. The result of present study led to a conclusion that protein rich variability is present in a genotype and it should be explored further for grass pea improvement programme.