Identification of novel donors for yield contributing traits from Chickpea Adaptive Trials (CAT) of ICARDA for base broadening of Indian chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

The Chickpea Adaptation Trial (CAT) of International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), comprising of 36 genotypes was raised during rabi 2019-20 for estimation of variability, heritability and association among yield and its components characters. The experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block (RCBD) design with two replications. Analysis of variance showed significant variability among the genotypes used for the study. Days to flowering and days to maturity were observed to record high heritability, which indicated the influence of dominant and epistatic gene action for these traits. Character association study among yield and yield contributing traits revealed that seed yield exhibited significant positively correlation with test weight. All the chickpea genotypes were grouped into three discrete clusters with higher genetic diversity for different traits suggesting good amount of variability among the genotypes.