Pigeonpea is slow-growing during its early stages.
This slow early growth makes it an excellent choice for intercropping with fast-growing, short-duration crops like black gram or pearl millet.
Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
Pulse crops (legumes) are grouped by their crop growth duration, which is the time required from sowing to physiological maturity.
These durations are generally classified into short-duration (under 90 days), medium-duration (90-120 days), and long-duration (over 150 days) types. Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
Let us compare the crop growth cycles of the given pulses:
1.Green gram (Vigna radiata) (A): Also known as mungbean, this is a highly versatile short-duration crop.
It typically matures in only \( 60 \) to \( 75 \) days, making it ideal for catch cropping or summer cultivation.
2.Black gram (Vigna mungo) (B): Also known as urdbean, this is another short-duration pulse.
It matures within \( 75 \) to \( 90 \) days.
3.Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) (C): Cowpea grows relatively quickly, with grain varieties maturing in \( 75 \) to \( 90 \) days.
4.Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) (D): Also known as red gram or arhar, this is a deep-rooted, highly drought-tolerant crop.
The traditional and widely grown cultivars of pigeonpea have a very long vegetative and reproductive phase.
Depending on the variety, they require \( 150 \) to more than \( 240 \) days to mature.
This makes pigeonpea a classic long-duration pulse crop that is often grown in intercropping systems with short-duration crops. Step 2: Final Answer:
The long-duration pulse crop among the options is Pigeonpea.
