CHICKPEA ADVANCED LINES SCREENING FOR SOURCES OF RESISTANCE AGAINST TWO MAJOR DISEASES OF CHICKPEA “WILT AND BLIGHT”

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a major food legume which ranks third in the world. Wilt and blight, two damaging diseases of chickpea, are prevalent in Pakistan, and this has resulted in a low output of the crop. Except for exploiting the host plant's resistance mechanism, the available control techniques are neither practicable nor cost-effective. To determine the sources of resistance in chickpea germplasm that is currently available.278chickpea genotypes (168 Desi and 110 Kabuli) originated from different springs were evaluated for disease resistance against Ascochyta rabiei in poly house and 102 different genotypes were screened for Fusarium oxysporum resistant sources in the sick field at Arid Zone Research Institute Bhakkar. Experiments were laid out following augmented design without replications during 2019-20 and highly susceptible check (AUG-424) was replicated as indicator for disease advent. The disease frequency was assessed twice at different growth stages and genotypes were categorized as per ICARDA rating scale (1-9). Ascochyta blight incidences revealed that39 lines displayed resistant (R) reaction and 12 had moderately resistant reaction (MR) in desi. However, 38 were found resistant and 26 genotypes were recorded as moderately resistant in kabuli chickpea, respectively. Similarly, 102 genotypes were sown in sick plot for screening against F. oxysporum, out of which only10 entries showed resistant and 21 moderately resistant reaction. The collected information was the most valuable to be used in breeding program for exploiting the genetic resistance and its direct use in severely blight and wilt hit areas may be preferred on the basis of resistance type.