Evaluation of chickpea (Cicer Aritinum L.) varieties against wilt disease in north Eastern Hilly Zone of Tamil Nadu

Chickpea (Cicer aritinum L.) is the major rainfed pulse crop cultivated in the hill areas of Vellore district in Tamil Nadu. However the productivity is highly limited by Chickpea wilt disease incited by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris and causes heavy losses (37-45%) depending upon infection stage and soil type. The availability of drought tolerance, wilt resistant and high yielding varieties was major constraint in chick pea cultivation. An investigation was carried out to identify suitable high yielding varieties for Yelagiri region during Rabi 2017-18. The study revealed that chickpea variety GBM 2 recorded higher seed yield of 968 kg/ha with the minimum disease incidence of 8.5 per cent. The maximum number of pods per plant (22.0) was recorded in GBM 2 variety compared to other varieties. The highest wilt incidence 17.2 per cent recorded in chickpea variety CO-4. Higher net return of Rs. 29,810 /ha and benefit cost ratio of 3.15 was recorded in GBM 2 compared to the other varieties. The investigation concluded that GBM 2 was found to be suitable variety for Yelagiri Hill region due to minimum wilt incidence and high seed yield. Considering the above facts, GBM 2 would be a better variety to the farming community for enhancing the productivity of Chickpea for Yelagiri hills in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu.