GRAIN DENSITY AS SELECTION CRITERION IN CHICKPEA AND WHEAT

Abstract

The present work using 177 chickpea genotypes consisting of 97 desi, 55 kabuli and 25 green seeded and 50 wheat genotypes showed that grain density is an important indicator for post-anthesis source-sink relationship detennining the grain weight component of yield. The results showed that a wide range of variability existed for grain weight, volume and density in both chickpea and wheat. Among the chickpea genotypes, kabuli types exhibited highest range and mean for grain weight and density. The study on wheat under two environments shows that the grain density could be increued with simultaneous increase in grain weight and yield even under abiotic streu environments. It is therefore suggested that the grain density could be used u a selection criterion u well u a parameter for identifying tolerence during pain filling particularly under adverse abiotic conditions like late planting, high! low temperature and moisture stress.