Barbados imports a considerable volume of canned and dried peas and beans. In keeping with the import substitution thrust of the Barbados diversification programme, CARDI is investigating the possibility of substituting locally produced pigeon peas for some of this imported product. The major constraints to the development of large scale pigeon pea production are harvesting and shelling of pods which are costly, labour intensive operations. The growth habit of the newer dwarf varieties like lCPl Z89, UWI 17, and UWI 10 lend themselves to mechanization. The results of investigations into the development of mechanized green pea and dry pea production systems are described. Mechanized planting has been successfully accomplished using a Stanhay seed drill, while efforts at mechanical harvesting and threshing of dry peas have been only partially successful.