Assessment of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Genotypes under Normal and Late Sown Environments using Stress Indices

Abstract

Background: Heat stress is a major restrain in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) productivity. Developing tolerant chickpea genotypes contributes breeding materials for hybridization programme. Stress indices related to abiotic stresses are found effective in screening of genotypes for high temperature tolerance in chickpea. Methods: An experiment with 24 genotypes under two different environments i.e., timely and late sown conditions was planned to identify the chickpea genotypes tolerant to heat stress, using thirteen stress indices. Stress Susceptibility Index (SSI) is the cardinal index to group genotypes based on their tolerance level. Stress indices Mean Productivity (MP), Geometric Mean Productivity (GMP), Harmonic Mean (HM) Index, Heat Resistant Index (HRI) and Modified Heat Tolerance Index (MHTI) are very effective in identifying stress tolerant genotypes. Result: The result indicated that genotypes H 04-75, H 08-75, H 12-26, H 09-96, ICCV 92944, DCP 92-3 and GNG 2226 are tolerant to heat stress. The identified genotypes can be used as parents in hybridization programme for breeding chickpea cultivars tolerant to high temperature environments.