BREEDING AND MORPHOBIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF CHICKPEA PLANT (CICER ARIETINUM L.) UNDER RAINFED CONDITIONS OF MOUNTAINOUS SHIRVAN

Abstract

The article presents 63 chickpea varieties introduced from 5 nurseries of ICARDA, where the yield, structural elements of production, grain quality, “stay green” leaf phenotype, and surface temperature in rainfed conditions were evaluated and compared with the standard “Sultan”. The research was carried out at the Gobustan Regional Experimental Station of the Research Institute of Crop Husbandry under rainfed conditions of Mountainous Shirvan in 2017–2018. This study aimed to select promising chickpea variety forms differing in drought resistance, morphological and physiological features, yield and other economically important parameters under rainfed conditions. In the flowering and grain-filling stages of the growing season, the values of the “stay green” phenotype of leaves in chickpea varieties varied in the range of 69.3–96.3 and 55.9–79.4, respectively. During this growing season, chickpea varieties’ values of the “stay green” leaf phenotype decreased in the range of 0.14–35.5 %. This decrease in the st. Sultan variety was 18 %. The maximum values of the decrease occurring in the “stay green” phenotypes under the impact of drought stress factors were observed mainly in low-yielding accessions. In chickpea varieties selected for economically important traits, taken from various international nurseries, yield indicators were 265–385 g/m 2 . The average yield values of these variety accessions were above the standard; this difference was 50 g/m 2 . Here, the maximum yields were obtained in accessions F.09-304 (380 g/m 2 ) and F.09-294 (385 g/m 2 ). Chickpea accessions with different yields used soil moisture more efficiently under rainfed conditions.