Pyramiding of drought avoidance/tolerance mechanisms - earliness, root weight and root length through multiple introgression in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

In chickpea (Cicer orietinum) the terminal drought is a major constraint that limits the productivity. Efforts to breed drought tolerant varieties in the past have not been rewarding because of imperfect understanding of drought manifestation using yield as an empirical selection criterion [1]. Plant breeders have categorized this drought tolerance mechanism in three categories viz. drought escape (early phonology of ICCV-2), drought avoidance by reduced leaf area and narrow leaflets (ICCV-10448) and drought tolerance through large root mass (ICCV-4958) [2]. Present investigation was therefore planned to introgress these different mechanism using three breeding lines (ICCV-2, ICCV- 4958 and ICCV-10448) as a source for one or the other mechanism of drought tolerance in to agronomically preferred variety Annigiri (A-1). Evaluation of breeding population was done during rabi season of 2004. There was typical drought situation during that year as there were no rainfall during croping period of chickpea.