Breeding strategies to improve lentil for diverse agro-ecological environments

Lentil is an important cool season pulse crops and it is cultivated world-wide in diverse agro ecological conditions. Several varieties have been developed adopting conventional breeding methodologies. Significant progress in genetic improvement for yield has been made by using different breeding strategies including molecular marker based precise breeding strategy in lentil. However, lentil production and productivity has not increased to its potential due to several biotic and abiotic stresses affect its growth and development. Utilization of wild species may provide useful genes for broadening the genetic base of lentil in respect of disease resistance, abiotic stresses and desirable agronomic traits. In present article, we have reviewed the breeding strategies used for improving lentil genotypes adapted under diverse agro-climatic conditions.