Development of field technique for mass screening of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) germ plasm under drought prone environments

In Pakistan more than 95% chickpea production comes from rainfed lands where drought is the major abiotic constraint. Chickpea screening for drought under natural environment is not usually reliable due to risk of uncertain rainfall. Studies for developing germ-plasm screening technique are more reliable under controlled environment. In present investigations a Glass house experiment was conducted at Centre of Arid Zone Studies, CAZS-Natural Resources, University of Wales, Bangor, UK during 2006-07. Four chickpea varieties/lines two each from desi and kabuli group were planted in Bench top raised bed measuring 50 x 50 x 30 cm. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with Split Plot arrangements having six replications. The crop was maintained under various artificial moisture stresses imposed at different plant growth stages. Treatments included well watering (control), moisture stress to 40 days old seedlings (FOS), stress at pre-flowering stage (SPS), stress at flowering stage (SFS) and stress at 25% pod formation stage i.e. terminal drought stress (TDS). The results revealed highly significant variation in yield contributing traits. Among various treatments, the moisture stress at pre-flowering stage (SPS) was found to be more damaging to yield and yield contributing variables in both the types of chickpea with maximum loss of 41.29% in grain yield as compared to control. Besides poor yield, the crop was also harvested late under SPS conditions. The moisture stress to chickpea plant at pre-flowering (SPS) stag was found quite harmful and detrimental, suggesting the more critical stage for germ plasm screening against drought prone environment.