Determination of Physical Properties of Chickpea Seeds and their Relevance in Germplasm Collections

The physical properties of seeds are important for processing and storage as well for assessing seed quality. Seed shape is an important qualitative character that determines the seed appearance and uniformity. Fifty chickpea germplasm accessions representing desi, kabuli and intermediate types were examined for various morphological and physical properties. High diversity for different seed traits was observed among the chickpea accessions. The extent of variation was wide for seed related traits especially in the pea-shaped chickpea accessions. These results are useful in refining the descriptor states of qualitative traits of chickpea seed and effectively utilizing germplasm in further crop improvement programmes.