Red gram or pigeon pea is an important pulse crop of India where it is grown on about 3.5 million hectares. It is a favourite dhal (tuar or arhar) of Indian cuisine and is suitable for rain fed agriculture because it is drought tolerant, needs minimum inputs and produces reasonable yields . Breakthrough Over the past 50 years, pigeon pea productivity has not increased in spite of several new varieties being released. To achieve a breakthrough in yield, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) developed an innovative breeding technology to develop commercial hybrids in this crop, the first such attempt in any food legume. After 25 years of intense research, hybrid ICPH 2671 was developed by ICRISAT, and has been named as