Pakistan is among top three chickpea producing countries but the crop is usually grown on marginal lands without irrigation and fertilizer application which significantly hampers its yield. Soil fertility and inoculation with beneficial rhizobacteria play a key role in nodulation and yield of legumes. Four kabuli and six desi chickpea genotypes were, therefore, evaluated for inoculation respons...

Botrytis gray mold (BGM) caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers. Ex. Fr. is an extremely devastating disease of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and has a regional as well as an international perspective. Unfortunately, nonchemical methods for its control are weak and ineffective. In order to identify an effective control measure, six fungicides with different modes of action were evaluated on a BGM susc...

Variation in osmotic adjustment (OA) among chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars has been observed when exposed to terminal drought, but some studies suggest that this benefits yield while others suggest it does not benefit yield in water-limited environments. In the present study, parents differing in OA were crossed and a set of advanced breeding lines (ABLs) developed for yield testing. Th...

AIMS To identify several strains of Mesorhizobium amorphae and Mesorhizobium tianshanense nodulating Cicer arietinum in Spain and Portugal, and to study the symbiotic genes carried by these strains. METHODS AND RESULTS The sequences of 16S-23S intergenic spacer (ITS), 16S rRNA gene and symbiotic genes nodC and nifH were analysed. According to their 16S rRNA gene and ITS sequences, the strains...

Drought, particularly terminal drought, reduces the yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Terminal drought tolerance and water use patterns were evaluated under controlled conditions in 10 genotypes of desi chickpea. Withholding water from early podding reduced vegetative growth, reproductive growth, seed yield, and water use efficiency for seed yield in all genotypes. The genotype Neelam, wh...

Fruit wastes of apple (Malus pumila), banana (Musa paradisiaca), papaya (Carica papaya), pomegranate (Punica granatum) and sweet orange (Citrus sinesis) @ 20g/plant and the fungal biocontrol agent Paecilomyces lilacinus @ 2g (mycelium+spores)/plant, alone and in combination were evaluated for the management of reniform nematode, Rotylenchulus reniformis infecting chickpea under glasshouse condi...

Legume crops such as chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut, mostly grown in marginal environments, are the major source of nutrition and protein to the human population in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. These crops, however, have a low productivity, mainly due to their exposure to several biotic and abiotic stresses in the marginal environments. Until 2005, these crops had limited genomics resources ...

Flowering time is an important trait for adaptation and productivity of chickpea in the arid and the semi-arid environments. This study was conducted for molecular mapping of genes/quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling flowering time in chickpea using F2 populations derived from four crosses (ICCV 96029 × CDC Frontier, ICC 5810 × CDC Frontier, BGD 132 × CDC Frontier and ICC 16641 × CDC Fro...

A field study was undertaken during winter (rabi) season of 2013-2014 to explore the effect of graded levels of fertilizers and bio-fertilizers on yield of chickpea, protein content in chickpea seeds and nutrient uptake by the crop. Significantly higher seed and stover yields (1854, 2722 kg ha-1, respectively) were recorded with application of fertilizer @ 100% RDF (25:50:00, kg N:P:K ha-1). Re...

Domesticated chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and its wild relative C. judaicum grow in sympatric distribution in Israel and both are susceptible to Ascochyta blight caused by Didymella rabiei. C. arietinum was grown for millennia in drier and hotter Levantine spring conditions while C. judaicum grows in the wetter and milder winters. Accordingly, it is possible that D. rabiei isolates originated fro...