Useful genetic diversity in germplasm collections of food and forage legumes from West Asia and North Africa

Abstract

The germplasm collections at ICARDA of faba bean, chickpea, lentil and forage legumes have been exploited by breeding programmes in the West Asia and North Africa region for production of improved cultivars. The first lines distributed were taken directly from the germplasm collections after initial evaluation. This formed the first flush of releases by national programmes, with 56 of 106 cultivars emanating from germplasm.