Abstract only

Food legumes have great importance in meeting the requirements of the population in full- fledged nutrition, as they contain high-quality indispensable components such as protein, starch and fat. Food legumes are important crops in agriculture. Securing free atmospheric nitrogen through nodule bacteria, they enrich soil with mineral nitrogen, and thus increase yield and the quality of the consequent crops, especially in dryland conditions (Vavilov, Posipanov, 1983; Potika, etc., 1987; Harper, 1974; Nelson, 1975). This contributes both to the enrichment of the population nutrition in the foothill zone and to improvement of the phyto-sanitary conditions in the fields that are frequently planted to wheat monoculture. A diversity of soil and climatic conditions in the different regions of the republic requires de- velopment and adoption of highly adapted and high yielding chickpea varieties, that are tolerant to abiotic and resistant to biotic stresses, possess high techno- logical properties and are suitable for the mechani- zed harvesting. Since 1997 evaluation of ICARDA chickpea nurseries, as well as collection and study of local germplasm has been carried out. The institute receives about 300-400 chickpea entries from ICARDA annually and conducts their multi-location testing in three zones of the republic (Absheron, Gobustan and Jalilabad). Gobustan and Jalilabad represent dryland regions and are characterized by sharply accentuated continental climate. Phenology notes were taken and plant growth and development were observed during the field studies. The following other traits were also studied: number of days for different growth stages, germplasm resistance to ascochyta leaf blight and fusarium wilt, cold tolerance and winter hardiness as well as adaptation to the foothill zone, branching habit, plant height and height of the lowest pod joint, and 1000-grain weight. Number of days to flowering varied from 20 to 30 days for different entries. At the end of the vegetation period differences in plant development paces lowers and variability of number of days to maturity ranges from 10 to 15 days. Number of days to maturity of the local entries is longer for 5-7 days as compared with that of the ICARDA entries. During the vegetation period, the entries were evaluated for resistance to ascochyta leaf spot and fusarium wilt (after emergence and at the flowering and pods formation stages). It was established that 90-95% of the studied entries were resistant to the Diseases. Cold tolerance and winter hardiness of the entries were investigated in the Gobustan region characterized by more severe climatic conditions. In some years of the study, as low as 15°C below zero air temperature was observed. The following of the studied entries were found to be winter hardy: F00-16C, F99-66C, F99-34C, F97-121C, F98-38C, F98-178C, F97-111C, F98-200C, F97-102C, F98- 74C, and F99-59C. They over-wintered successfully and can be planted in the fall. One of the important chickpea traits is plant Height. About 72.6% of the entries had plant height up to 25 cm or shorter. About 5 % of the studied entries were higher than 35 cm. Height of the other entries varied within 25-35 cm. The following variability was identified for 1 OOO-grain weight: 17.2 %,53 % and 28.9% of the entries had less than 300 g, from 300 to 350 g, and more than 350 g, respectively. Grain yield per area unit varied as follows: 7.0 %,79. 7% and 13.3 %entries produced less than 100 gr/m2, between 100 and 200 gr/m2 and more than 200 gr/m2, respectively. Based on the study results several highly adapted promising chickpea lines were selected and new variety "Narmin", characterized by the valuable farming properties, and was developed.

English

0409|AGRIS 0401|AL-Wheat Program

Juan Carlos Mendieta

CIMMYT Publications Collection