Management of Germplasm Collections in Chickpea

DOI: 10.22161/ijeab/1.3.39

Abstract:
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important pulse crop and ranks second in area and third in production among the pulses in the world.About 150 accessions were desi types and remaining 10 kabuli types. Similarly, kabuli germplasm maintained at International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) was screened for 29 traits including reaction to major biotic and abiotic stresses and promising donor sources have been identified. Collaborative efforts among different research institutes through national network should be made to evaluate chickpea germplasm systematically at several locations. To narrow down the gap between germplasm available and the germplasm utilized in the breeding programmes, it is imperative to document the germplasm providing a complete spectrum of genetic variability in the collection. Efforts should also be made towards germplasm enhancement through incorporation of genes from secondary and tertiary gene pools into a suitable genetic background. A good number of accessions conserved in various genebanks may be duplicates and efforts are required to identify and eliminate them using molecular markers.Over 13,500 accessions were evaluated for resistance to race 1 of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri at ICRISAT resulting into identification of 160 accessions with stable resistance (Haware et al., 1992).

Keywords:
Chickpea,Cicer arietinum L., Germplasm collection, Germplasm evaluation, Genebanks.

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