Kabuli Type Research Articles

Evaluation of Physiological and Biochemical Contents in Desi and Kabuli Chickpea

Background: Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), a self-pollinating legume being cultivated globally as a rich source of vegetarian protein. It plays an important role in human feed and nutritional security, especially in agricultural-based communities. Chickpea has higher bioavailability of protein, good sources of polyphenols and flavonoids. Besides their nutritional value, chickpea seeds contain various phenolic compounds. Phenolic compounds are of particular interest due to their contribution to the seed colour, sensory characteristics and several biological properties. Flavonoids are one of the main groups of phenolic compounds found in grain legumes. Desi and Kabuli chickpeas are being used worldwide and there are few studies where both desi and kabuli chickpeas seed flour for above properties with respect to physiological traits has been reported. Methods: The present investigation has been formulated to compare popular chickpea genotypes of desi and kabuli types for biochemical parameters viz., protein content, amino acid, total flavonoid content, total phenolic contents and RSA as well as two physiological traits i.e., chlorophyll content and leaf area index. The experiment consisted of 44 genotypes () grown in Randomized Block Design with row to row distance of 30 cm, in two replications during Rabi 2018-19. Result: The average crude protein content in desi and kabuli chana varied from 18.2% (Dollar variety) to 26.7% (JG315) and total phenolic content (TPC) ranged 1.22 to 0.74 mg/g. Total Flavonoid content (TFC) varied from 0.39 (ICCV-2) to 0.61 mg/g (JAKI-9218) with mean value of 0.47. Radical scavenging activity (RSA) in chickpea genotypes ranged from 36.2 to 49.5% with mean value of 40.86%. Total amino acid significantly correlated with TPC and TFC and TPC significantly correlated with TFC at 5% significant level.

Effects of water stress applied at different phenological phases of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of two chickpea varieties to water stress at the College of Agriculture campus, Hawassa University under greenhouse from January to June 2017. Three water stress levels i.e. without stress (control), vegetative water stress and seed filling water stress were assigned as main plot, chickpea varieties Habru (Kabuli type) and Mastewal (Desi type). The treatments were laid in split plot design with four replications. The results showed that water stress significantly affected all parameters studied in this experiment. The seed filling water stress resulted greater reductions in the value of all tested parameters studied compared to optimum watering and vegetative stress except number of primary branches and harvesting index, which were significantly lower under vegetative water stress. As well, the two varieties significantly differed for all observed parameters except number of nodules per plant and nodule dry weight. Days to flowering, pod maturity, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and harvest index were significantly higher for Mastewal variety while, plant height, number of primary branches, number of secondary branches, dry biomass, seed yield per plant, hundred seed weight and root dry weight were greater for Habru variety. Days to flowering, plant height, seed yield per plant, hundred seed weight, number of pods per plant and harvest index were significantly affected (p<0.05) due to all two way interactions. Water management schemes that ensure to avoid especially terminal water stress could help to maintain chickpea production, which is usually grown with residual moisture by the majority of Ethiopian farmers. Given the fact that the results are obtained from a pot experiment there is a need to substantiate the findings with field experiments conducted under contrasting moisture environments.
 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 10(1): 13-21, June 2020

The Effect of Cropping Method and Botanical Form on Seed Yielding and Chemical Composition of Chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.) Grown under Organic System

A field study was conducted at the Agricultural Experimental Station in Grabów in Poland between 2017–2018. This study evaluated seed yield and chemical composition of chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.) under organic conditions, either growing as a sole crop, or with barley (Hordeum vulgare) or oats (Avena sativa L.) as supporting plants. Two chickpea types were included in experiment scheme: kabuli and desi. The experiment was established as a split-plot design with four replicates. The study showed that a higher total seed yields of both forms of chickpeas grown in both pure sowing and with spring cereals was obtained in 2018 than 2017. The higher yield in this study period was the result of a greater number of pods, seeds, and higher weight of the chickpea seed and cereal grains on a plant. Higher yields were noted in chickpeas grown with supporting crops than in sole cropping. Significantly better thousand seed weight of both botanical forms of chickpeas was observed in chickpeas grown in sole cropping than with supporting plants. Regardless of cropping method, the desi form was characterized by higher yields than the kabuli type, and its percentage in seed yields of chickpeas grown with cereals was higher than the kabuli type. The highest seed yields were obtained in chickpeas grown with oats. Neither chickpea type had a significant effect on the height of cereal plant, the number of grains on each plant, the number of producing shoots or thousandgrainweight of the two cereal species. Regardless of cropping method, the highest content of fiber and fat was determined in desi-type seeds, while the highest protein and phosphorus content was characterized kabuli-type seeds.

Characterization of chickpea genotypes of Pakistani origin for genetic diversity and zinc grain biofortification.

Intake of food low in essential minerals, like zinc (Zn), is one of the major reasons of malnutrition. Development of genotypes with grains enriched in essential minerals may help to solve the issue of malnutrition. In this study, 16 chickpea genotypes (eight each of desi and kabuli types) of Pakistani origin were evaluated for genetic diversity and grain Zn biofortification potential with and without Zn fertilization. A wide variation was noted for agronomic, physiological, agro-physiological, utilization, and apparent recovery efficiencies of Zn in the chickpea genotypes tested. Genotypes also differed for grain Zn concentration (37.5-48.6 mg kg-1 ), bioavailable Zn (3.72-4.42 mg day-1 ), and grain yield. The highest grain Zn concentration and bioavailable Zn were noted in genotypes NIAB-CH-2016 (47.1 mg kg-1 and 4.30 mg day-1 respectively) and Noor-2013 (48.6 mg kg-1 and 4.38 mg day-1 respectively) among the desi and kabuli types respectively. The same genotypes were the highest yielders. Cluster analysis showed that all (eight) kabuli genotypes grouped together, whereas most (six) of the desi genotypes clustered in a separate group. There was low to moderate genetic diversity (0.149 for desi and 0.104 for kabuli types) and a low level of genetic differentiation between the two chickpea types (0.098). Two populations of chickpea had low to moderate genetic diversity, with consistent gene flow. This genetic diversity in both chickpea types allows the breeding gains for improving the grain yield and grain Zn biofortification potential of chickpea genotypes. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.

Chickpea Breeding and Crop Improvement in Ethiopia: Past, Present and the Future

This review paper reflects the retrospective and prospective of chickpea breeding in Ethiopia in time course of the last five decades. The full-fledged chickpea breeding in Ethiopia started in the 1970s, by just collection, characterization and evaluation among hundreds of local desi accessions for the key yield limiting challenges of the crop production. Among key challenges include soil wilt-root rot complex, inherent low productivity of accessions, ascochyta blight, pod borer, storage pest, terminal drought, and shriveled seed size. Nonetheless efforts combining the multiple objectives and disciples, and partners together have shade in the enhancement of more than tens of thousands of germplasms flows, inter and intra-accession breeding, vital trait of interest transfer between or among candidate lines. Marker assisted breeding and interspecific hybridization with Cicer spp (C. reticulatum and C. echinospermum) are being employed as tools in trait of interest introgression and/or germplasm pool enrichment for immediate future use. The breeding technical efficiency have also been in progress in handling complex of derived population to enhance probability of progressive genetic gain explained through super variety development from germplasm lines, that changed chickpea production and productivity landscape. Ethiopian chickpea has enjoyed by the Kabuli types joined since mid-1980s and accelerates over the desi types due to some peculiar traits (AB-resistance, taste, seed texture etc) liked by the market and consumers. Hence, in its age of breeding, 23 super performing varieties released in both types, yield have been quadrupled from 700kg/ha, seed size tripled from 11g/100seed, market volume and values improved significantly, income per unit area has more than tripled, area expansion almost doubled.

English

Fusarium wilt is one of the economical important vascular root diseases affecting chickpea. A total of 427 chickpea germplasms were grouped into two types, desi type (385) and kabuli. 42 genotypes were evaluated to identify fusarium wilt resistant sources in Debre Zeit sick plot under natural infected field. The genotypes were grown in 2017/18 main cropping season and augmented design was used without replications; highly susceptible differential checks (JG-62) was replicated as indicator for disease appearance. The disease incidences were assessed three times at different growth stage and genotypes were graded as per ICRISAT rating scale. The fusarium wilt incidences revealed that five lines were resistant and ten had moderately resistant reaction in desi; five were resistant and 14 genotypes were moderately resistant in kabuli type of chickpea respectively. This implies that source of variability in desi type chickpea has low resistance to wilt/root rot and other major chickpea diseases. Most accession lines are early wilting type, which makes it difficult to identify slow wilting type of lines in chickpea. Thus, the promising genotypes indicate that it is most suitable for exploitation in breeding and its directly used in severely wilt affected areas as well as transfer of their gene to a commercial cultivar on the basis of resistance type. Key word: Chickpea, Fusarium wilt, incidence, inheritance, slow wilting.

Chickpea Cultivar Selection to Produce Aquafaba with Superior Emulsion Properties.

Aquafaba (AQ), a viscous by-product solution produced during cooking chickpea or other legumes in water, is increasingly being used as an egg replacement due to its ability to form foams and emulsions. The objectives of our work were to select a chickpea cultivar that produces AQ with superior emulsion properties, and to investigate the impact of chickpea seed physicochemical properties and hydration kinetics on the properties of AQ-based emulsions. AQ from a Kabuli type chickpea cultivar (CDC Leader) had the greatest emulsion capacity (1.10 ± 0.04 m2/g) and stability (71.9 ± 0.8%). There were no correlations observed between AQ emulsion properties and chickpea seed proximate compositions. Meanwhile, AQ emulsion properties were negatively correlated with AQ yield and moisture content, indicating that AQ with higher dry-matter content displayed better emulsion properties. In conclusion, the emulsification properties of aquafaba are greatly influenced by the chickpea genotype, and AQ from the CDC Leader chickpea produced the most stable food oil emulsions.

Adequate zinc nutrition improves the tolerance against drought and heat stresses in chickpea

Two chickpea genotypes viz. Bhakar-2011 (desi) and Noor-2013 (kabuli) were sown in soil filled pots supplied with low (0.3 mg kg−1) and high (3 mg kg−1 soil) zinc (Zn) under control (70% water holding capacity and 25/20 °C day/night temperature), drought (35% water holding capacity) and heat (35/30 °C day/night temperature) stresses. Drought and heat stresses reduced rate of photosynthesis, photosystem II efficiency, plant growth and Zn uptake in chickpea. Low Zn supply exacerbated adverse effects of drought and heat stresses in chickpea, and caused reduction in plant biomass, carbon assimilation, antioxidant activity, impeded Zn uptake and enhanced oxidative damage. However, adequate Zn supply ameliorated adverse effect of drought and heat stresses in both chickpea types. The improvements were more in desi than kabuli type. Adequate Zn nutrition is crucial to augment growth of chickpea plants under high temperature and arid climatic conditions.

Effect of degree of salinity on seed germination and initial growth of chickpea (Cicer arietinum)

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the main pulse crops cultivated mostly in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world, very often on saline lands. The problem is that it has not been clearly determined yet what is the safe salinity degree for obtaining uniform and vigorous sprouts of the crop without significant suppression in the parameters of initial growth and development. The goal of our study was to determine the effect of different NaCl concentrations in solutions on chickpea germination and initial growth to determine the safe degree of salinity for the crop cultivation. The study was carried out in greenhouse conditions of Kherson State Agrarian University. We studied the effect of five different gradually increasing degrees of NaCl solutions on the germination percentage and initial growth of chickpea (variety Rosanna, kabuli type) that was germinated in laboratory conditions in flasks filled with sand, at the temperature of 25 oC. A significant decrease in all the studied parameters was observed with the increase of salinity degree. However, we think that a considerable decrease of the crop germination and initial growth started with NaCl concentration of 1.79 g/L: germination percentage decreased by 33.9%, plant height – by 7.8 cm, root length – by 5.5 cm in comparison to the control variant (not saline conditions). Therefore, we conclude that the chickpea can be efficiently cultivated on slightly-saline lands. Besides, the results of linear regression analysis revealed that the most susceptible stage of chickpea growth and development is germination because this stage had strong close inter-connection with the degree of salinity. Further growth of the crop was less affected by the salinity stress. We recommend cultivation of chickpea on the saline lands only with a slight salinity level.

Importance of Seed Traits in Processing Germplasm Collections: A Case Study of Chickpea Genetic Resources at ICRISAT

Seed traits like color, shape, size, weight, surface projections and texture determine the type and quality of storage containers, drying behavior, and germination testing and packaging procedures for germplasm conservation. We studied the seed traits on 65 chickpea germplasm accessions and observed significant differences across traits and association with other related parameters. Seed moisture content differed significantly with seed coat color, surface texture and shape. Large Kabuli types and seeds with smooth surface texture have better drying features; however, had deleterious effects on seed quality. Hard-seededness was strongly associated with moisture content, seed types, color and seed coat thickness. Desi type chickpeas were superior to Kabuli and intermediate types with respect to seed germination. The results provide a basis for identifying chickpea types requiring additional care during seed processing and identifying germplasm with desirable seed traits for utilization in research.

Chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus: An Emerging Monopartite Dicot Infecting Mastrevirus.

Chickpea stunt disease (CSD), caused by Chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus (CpCDV) is a threat to chickpea production leading to yield losses of 75–95%. Chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus is a monopartite, single-stranded circular DNA virus in the genus Mastrevirus and family Geminiviridae. It is transmitted by Orosius albicinctus in a circulative (persistent) and nonpropagative manner. Symptoms of CSD include very small leaves, intense discoloration (yellowing (kabuli type) and reddening (desi type)), and bushy stunted appearance of the plant. Presently, CpCDVs occurs in Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East, causing extensive losses on economically important crops in in the families Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Amaranthaceae, Brassicaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Caricaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Leguminosae, Malvaceae, Pedaliaceae, and Solanaceae. High frequency of recombinations has played a significant role in the wide host range, diversification, and rapid evolution of CpCDVs. This review highlights the extensive research on the CpCDV genome diversity, host range, plant–virus–insect interactions, and RNA interference-based resistance of CpCDV, providing new insights into the host adaptation and virus evolution.

English

Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers were employed to reveal genetic diversity and relatedness among 27 chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars in Ethiopia. Four di-nucleotide repeat primers amplified 24 clear and reproducible bands of which 22 were polymorphic (91.67%). The genetic variation among 27 chickpea cultivars including 12 kabuli and 15 desi verities is high; in which desi type exhibited a genetic diversity of 75% with Shannon index of 0.47, while the kabuli type chickpea had 91.67% genetic diversity and Shannon index of 0.50. Unweighted Pair Group of Arithmetic mean (UPGMA) dendrogram and NJ trees with Jaccard’s similarity coefficient showed three major clusters. This was also recovered by 3D principal coordinates analysis, although some cultivars were intermixed. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) demonstrated highly significant (p < 0.001) genetic diversity within cultivars (97.71%) than among cultivars (2.29%). The distinct cultivars (Aererti, Tejie, Fetenech and Maryie) can serve as parents for future genetic resources conservation and Chickpea breeding program in Ethiopia. Key word: Chickpea cultivars, genetic diversity, ISSR markers, Ethiopia.

English

Experimental material consisted 252 intra-specific recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a cross between desi (ICC 283) and kabuli (ICC 8261) type of chickpea, received from ICRISAT, Patancheru, India. Experiment was conducted at Rafi Ahmed Kidwai College of Agriculture, Sehore, Bhopal, India, during rabi 2011-12 and 2012-13. Traits assessed were days to 50% flowering, maturity, plant height, biological yield, seed yield, harvest index and 100-seed weight. Standard statistical analysis was adopted for calculating the genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance. Out of seven characters studied biological yield, seed yield, harvest index and 100-seed weight exhibited high genotypic coefficient of variation and heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percent of mean which revealed that these traits might be under control of additive gene effects and therefore these traits are more reliable for effective selection for developing desirable lines.

Desi chickpea genotypes tolerate drought stress better than kabuli types by modulating germination metabolism, trehalose accumulation, and carbon assimilation

Chickpea is mostly grown in rainfed environments and, consequently, its growth is affected by drought stress. This study comprised two independent experiments to investigate the physiological basis of drought tolerance in desi and kabuli chickpea genotypes. In Experiment 1, six genotypes each of desi and kabuli types were planted in soil-filled pots under natural conditions. Ten days after planting, soil moisture was maintained at 75% water holding capacity (well-watered) or 50% water holding capacity (drought stress). Drought stress significantly reduced seedling dry weight, specific leaf area (SLA), and transpiration efficiency (TE) in both chickpea types, relative to the well-watered controls, but their responses varied, with relatively fewer reductions in desi genotypes, Bakhar-2011 and Bitall-2016, and kabuli genotypes, K-70005 and Noor-2013. These four genotypes were used in experiment 2, which was similar to the first but conducted in a climate chamber and the drought was imposed at planting. Drought stress reduced stand establishment, growth, photosynthesis, water relations, α-amylase activity, sugar metabolism, proline, phenolic accumulation, nitrogen and potassium to varying degrees in the four tested genotypes. The reductions were greater in kabuli genotypes than desi genotypes. Under drought stress, desi genotypes germinated better, and had higher trehalose, total and reducing sugars, sucrose, α-amylase activity, photosynthesis, growth, and mineral concentrations than kabuli genotypes. The desi genotype Bakhar-2011 performed better under drought than the desi genotype Bitall-2016 due to better germination metabolism and accumulation of free proline, total phenolics, and trehalose, which maintained carbon assimilation and prevented oxidative damage. In conclusion, desi chickpea types tolerate drought stress better than kabuli types due to better germination metabolism and trehalose accumulation, which prevented oxidative damage, helped with efficient water use, and sustained plant growth.

Nutritional Evaluation of Some Kabuli and Desi Varieties of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

The nutritional quality of whole grains of some desi and kabuli varieties of chickpea was studied. The range of variability in case of Kabuli type chickpea varieties was from 61.70–65.03% (total carbohydrates), 23.38–25.90% (crude protein), 4.125.03% (Crude fat) and 373.48–407.00 Kcal/100g (calorific value). However, in case of desi type chickpea, the range of variability was as, total carbohydrates (51.74–65.05%), crude protein (23.68–25.57%), crude fat (3.62–4.62%) and calorific value (345.19–385.57 Kcal/100g). Among the kabuli chickpea, variety-BG-1053 gave significantly higher value of total carbohydrates, crude protein, crude fat and calorific value while in desi chickpea varieties-Vishal and Sadabahar showed significantly higher values of crude protein, calorific value, crude fat and total carbohydrates.

Milling properties of desi and kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum) varieties released in India

Dal milling is among top three grain processing industries in India. Milling performance of pulses varies with grain property and milling methodologies with a key role played by the genotype. More than 190 varieties of chickpea belonging to both desi and kabuli types have been released in India mainly on the basis of yield and disease reaction, ignoring the miller and traders preferred processing traits. There is dearth of information about milling performance of chickpea varieties cultivated in India. The present study provides milling potential of 46 popular chickpea varietieswhich are currently in seed chain in the country. Although kabuli type chickpea varieties are mostly consumed as whole seed, yet they were included in the study for comparing their milling potential with desi types. The kabuli varieties exhibited better dal recovery (83.1-87.8%) than desi (61.3-82.6%) along with lesser soaking period (90-240 min) and chaff content (8-13.6%) due to their thinner seed coat. The kabuli types exhibited poor grain yield (944-1764 kg/ha) as compared to desi types (811-2558 kg/ha). The difference in yield among desi and kabuli types was compensated in dal yield to some extent due to better dal recovery (%) among kabuli types. Among desi varieties, soaking period and chaff content was positively correlated indicating that more the chaff content more will be the soaking duration and vice versa. The dal recovery was positively correlated with 100-seed weight and negatively correlated with chaff content. Dal recovery among desi varieties can be improved by reducing seed coat thickness. Desi varieties GNG-2144, RSG-963, RSG-974 and kabuli varieties IPCK 2002-29, CSJK-6, JGK-3 exhibited better milling propertiesand can be used as a donor for improved milling properties.

Nutrient digestibility of chickpea in ileal-cannulated finisher pigs and diet nutrient digestibility and growth performance in weaned pigs fed chickpea-based diets

In 2 studies, ileal digestibility of amino acids (AA), energy value of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and effects of increasing dietary inclusion of chickpea on diet nutrient digestibility and growth performance were evaluated. In Exp. 1, 6 ileal-cannulated barrows (89.9kg BW) were fed diets containing 965 or 812.5g chickpea (Kabuli type; mix of cultivars CDC Frontier, CDC Orion, CDC Luna and CDC Leader)/kg in a crossover design. Chickpea contained 213g crude protein (CP), 328g starch, 88g crude fat, 125g total dietary fibre, 12.9g chemically available lysine, 5.2g trypsin inhibitory activity and 4g tannin per kg (as-is basis). For chickpea, coefficients of standardised ileal digestibility were 0.660 for CP and 0.717 for lysine, the coefficient of apparent ileal digestibility (CAID) of gross energy (GE) was 0.623, the apparent total tract digestibility (CATTD) of GE was 0.886, the digestible energy (DE) value was 15.8MJ/kg (as fed) and the predicted net energy (NE) value was 11.3MJ/kg. In Exp. 2, 320 pigs (initial BW: 9.6kg), weaned at 20±1days of age, were fed diets containing 0, 75, 150, 225 or 300g chickpea/kg in substitution for up to 200g soybean meal and 100g wheat grain/kg for 3 weeks starting 2 weeks post-weaning. Steam-pelleted diets were formulated to provide 9.8MJ NE/kg and 1.2g standardised ileal digestible lysine/MJ NE. Increasing chickpea inclusion quadratically increased (P<0.001) diet CATTD of dry matter and GE by up to 0.024, diet DE by up to 0.6MJ/kg and predicted diet NE value by up to 0.4MJ/kg, but quadratically decreased (P<0.001) CATTD of CP by up to 0.046. Overall (day 0–21), increasing chickpea quadratically increased (P<0.05) average daily feed intake (ADFI), quadratically increased then decreased (P<0.001) average daily gain (ADG) and quadratically decreased (P<0.001) feed efficiency (G:F) and final BW. Pigs fed diet containing 150g chickpea/kg had increased (P<0.01) ADFI by 65g/d and ADG by 53g/d while maintaining G:F compared with pigs fed a diet without chickpea. In conclusion, chickpea in the present study had DE and NE similar to reported values, but had a lower CSID of AA than reported. Dietary inclusion of up to 300g chickpea/kg did not affect feed intake in weaned pigs. Maximum growth and feed efficiency were attained at 150g chickpea/kg diet fed to weaned pigs.

Variability in Some Biochemical and Nutritional Characteristics in Desi and Turkish Kabuli Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Types

Chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.), the third most widely produced food legume in all over the world, is consumed for its protein-rich seeds especially in developing countries. According to seed morphology, cultivated chickpeas are of two types as desi and kabuli. There is a growing interest if extracts obtained from chickpea grains might be used as a source of natural antioxidants and antimicrobials such as phenolic or flavonoid compounds. The objective of this work is to investigate the total phenolic, flavonoid and protein contents of a desi (ICC 3996) type and three kabuli (Seçkin, İnci and Hasanbey) types of chickpea seeds. Analyses were performed in extracts of 24 hours imbibed grains. The Folin Ciocalteu procedure was used to assess the total phenolic amounts while the total flavonoid content was measured with an aluminium chloride colorimetric assay. Total protein concentration was determined according to the Biuret method. Desi type exhibited the lowest protein content whereas İnci had the highest levels of total protein among kabuli types. Total phenolic content of desi type was significantly higher than other genotypes ( P ≤0.05). Seçkin showed lower flavonoid content than all other genotypes including the desi type. The results revealed that despite Turkish genotypes were richer in protein level, desi type was still valuable for its high total phenolic and flavonoid amounts.

The Genotypic and Phenotypic Basis of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Cultivars for Irrigation-Based Production in Ethiopia

Development of irrigation-based chickpea production is considered the most important alternative approach in combating climate change and maximizing productivity, especially in moisture-stress areas and in areas where water and land for irrigation is available. In central Ethiopia, where production of chickpea (especially Kabuli type) is becoming an important part of agriculture, although many superior varieties (both desi and Kabuli types) are available, they have been evaluated and released based on rainfed production. Hence, there is an urgent need for evaluation of varieties suited for irrigation-based production. Towards this goal, during the 2012/13 growing season, 14 Kabuli genotypes (previously introduced) and 24 desi genotypes (nurseries obtained from ICRISAT) were evaluated independently at three and one locations respectively (Kabuli at Debre Zeit, Ambo and Werer; desi at Debre Zeit) for production adaptation under irrigation. The parameters evaluated were date of maturity, 100-seed weight and yield. Overall, while most Kabuli genotypes showed high adaptability to irrigation-based production at all locations, four Kabuli genotypes (X96TH-52-14/2000 = 106.7DAS, FLIP-02-39C = 107DAS, X98TH-51-1-3 = 107.9DAS and ICCV-07313 = 107DAS) were found to be earlier in maturity; two genotypes (ICCV-07313 = 42.5 g and ICCV-04305 = 37.8 g) were identified as having high 100-seed weight and one genotype (ICCV-05309 = 3228.8 kg/ha or 32 quintals/ha) out yielded all genotypes across locations. The result of combined analysis indicated five promising genotypes showing more than 20 kg/ha yield on average. All desi varieties showed maturity dates of under four months; six genotypes showed higher 100-seed weight and eight genotypes showed promising yield responses (&gt; 2000 kg/ha). From these preliminary results, it can be deduced that irrigation can play a significantly complementary role to the rainfed system, provided the genetics by management is optimized through research and innovation.

Genotype, environment and their interaction influence seed quality traits in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

To study the variation in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) seed composition important traits (seed weight, total starch, amylose and crude protein) were analyzed in 237 chickpea genotypes (180 desi, 49 kabuli and 8 pea shaped) grown in replicated trials over three consecutive years in field (2011 and 2013) and greenhouse (2012). Analysis of variance showed a significant effect of genotype, environment and their interaction on these traits. Kabuli type chickpea genotypes showed higher one thousand seed weight (105–472g), total starch (34.1–63.2%) and crude protein (15.7–28.0%) concentrations; however, amylose concentration (27.1–41.6% of total starch) was higher in desi chickpea genotypes. Correlation analysis exhibited a significant negative association of seed weight to amylose and crude protein; whereas positive association to total starch. Amylose showed a significant negative correlation to starch but positive correlation to crude protein. A significant negative correlation was also found between starch and crude protein. Chickpea genotypes showed high broad sense heritability (H2) for seed weight (0.70); while low to moderate H2 for total starch (0.12–0.51), crude protein (0.15–0.37) and amylose (0.10–0.14). Chickpea genotypes with high crude protein and amylose can be utilized in breeding programs to enhance chickpea seed quality to meet the diverse consumer requirements for improved diet and health benefits.