Abstract only

Mtskheta Breeding Station has been engaged in breeding of food legumes since 1998, after rich material was received from ICARDA, an international agricultural research center. The received collection comprised 2173 entries in total, including: chickpea -1338, lentil- 461, vetch -64, common vetch -80, kidney bean -32, large-seeded horse bean -32, pea -50, horse bean -16, and winter vetch -16. All the entries were studied for breeding purposes, as a result of which entries with best agronomic traits were selected. A special attention was given to chickpea and lentil crops. In 1998-1999 , 3 chickpea and 4 lentil entries were subjected to testing on a sowing area of 200 m2. As a result, one entry of chickpea and one entry of lentil with the best economic traits were selected for further studies. Their yield under favorable climatic conditions made up to 3.4 t/ha each. Both entries were released under the name Elixir and Pablo, respectively. In parallel, the work on studying the entire ICARDA germplasm was carried out. At present, 172 entries of chickpea and III entries of lentil are being studied at the Mtskheta breeding station in various trials. The conducted studies showed that the promising entries of chickpea (#10) and lentil (#2) excel in yield varieties Elixir and Pablo by 0.5 t/ha and 0.05 t/ha, respectively. Germplasm and corresponding financial assistance from ICARDA made it possible to release the chickpea and lentil varieties to five commercial farms in Georgia. The carried out program will help to solve a number of important for the republic problems, such as the provision of the population with protein-rich products, the improvement of cost-efficiency of field crop production, the development of still vacant sowing areas in arid zones, the improvement of the cropping system and soil fertility, as well as a wider employment of machinery and the producing of competitive products.

English

0409|AGRIS 0401|AL-Wheat Program

Juan Carlos Mendieta

CIMMYT Publications Collection