Evaluation of Desi Chickpea (Cicer arientinum L.) Landraces for Heat Tolerance using Morpho-phenological Traits and Stress Tolerance Indices (STI)

Abstract

Background: Chickpea is a globally important commercial crop and a key source of protein for vegetarian populations. Though chickpea was domesticated at least 3000 years ago, research into abiotic stress tolerance has been limited compared to cereals. Methods: An experiment was conducted with a set of seventy-one genotypes of Desi chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) to isolate high temperature tolerant genotypes using randomized block design (RBD) under two different sowing conditions (normal and late/terminal heat stress) and two growing seasons (rabi-2017-18 and 2018-19) at the Pulses Research Station of Junagadh Agricultural University. The screening of heat tolerant genotypes was done based on nine morpho-phenological traits, stress tolerance indices and correlation amongst them. Result: The heat tolerant genotypes of chickpea had less percentage of reduction in numbers of pods, seed yield per plant and 100-seeds weight. Five genotypes viz., ICC 4958, ICC 14595, ICC 8318, GG 4 and ICCV 92944 were identified as highly heat tolerant on the basis of HSI and YSR. These tolerant genotypes and screening criteria’s can be of great importance to identify donor parents to develop new cultivars for the farmers growing chickpea in the heat prone regions.