Feb

2016Science with a human face

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An Overview of Chickpea Improvement Program of Ethiopia

Introduction ■ Chickpea is grown by over 1 million households on 13.2% of the total crop acreage and forms 14.8% of the total production in Ethiopia

■ The current national chickpea productivity is 1.91 t/ha, way lower than the crop potential of 6t/ha

■ Some of the challenges in chickpea production include:• use of low yielding local landraces• susceptibility to a/biotic stresses• poor crop management practices • use of low quality seed

■ The national chickpea crop improvement program works with local and international partners to address these constraints.

Methods ■ The crop improvement program uses the following approaches

• Collection of local germplasm and selection,• Germplasm introductions (ICRISAT through TL I, II & II/ICARDA)

■ Hybridization followed selection ■ Preliminary variety trials ■ National variety trials ■ Variety verification trial ■ Lines that successfully go through these processes are released as new varieties and recorded in the national register.

Million Eshete1*, Mekasha Chichaymelu1, Lijalem Korbu1, Ridwan Mohammed1, Nigusie Girma1, Dagnachew Bekele1, Asnake Fikre2, Ganga Rao NVPR3, Chris O Ojiewo4, Emmanuel Monyo3, Moses Siambi3, Pooran M Gaur5, Rajeev K Varshney5 and Zewdie Bishaw6

1DebreZeit Agric. Research Center, EIAR, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia; 2Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, EIAR, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 3Grain Legumes, ICRISAT, Kenya; 4Grain Legumes, ICRISAT, Ethiopia; 5ICRISAT, India; 6International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)

Contact: Email: million102001@yahoo.com

Results ■ The chickpea improvement program released 24 improved varieties (17 national and 7 regional)

■ The released/pipeline varieties have traits such as

• large seed (64 g/100 seed weight)• Disease resistance (Ascochyta blight/Fusarium wilt)• Drought tolerance (MABC)• Early maturing• High yielding• Machine harvestable• Heat tolerant

■ The average yield gain due to these varieties is 2-3 fold over landrace varieties ■ Projects such as TL II have aggressively supported variety development, release and dissemination through integrated seed systems

■ Integration of the formal and informal seed production and distribution system has enhanced availability

■ With the uptake of these varieties and associated production packages, the national productivity has been on steady increase.

Improved chickpea varieties released in Ethiopia and their sources.Variety Pedigree Type Release year SourceDZ-10-11 DZ-10-11 Desi 1974 Local collections DZ-10-4 DZ-10-4 Kabuli 1974 Local collectionsDubie PGRC Desi 1978 Local collectionsMariye ICCX-730089 Desi 1985 ICRISATWorku ICCL 82104 Desi 1994 ICRISATAkaki ICCL 82106 Desi 1995 ICRISATShasho ICCV 93512 Kabuli 1999 ICRISATArerti FLIP-89-84c Kabuli 1999 ICARDAChefe ICCV 92318 Kabuli 2004 ICRISATHabru FLIP-88-42c Kabuli 2004 ICARDAKutaye ICCV 92003 Desi 2005 ICRISATEjere FLIP-97-263c Kabuli 2005 ICARDATeji FLIP 97-266c Kabuli 2005 ICARDAYelibe ICC 14808 Kabuli 2006 ICRISATFetenech ICCV 92069 Desi 2006 ICRISATMastewal ICCV-92006 Desi 2006 ICRISATNatoli ICCX-910112-6 Desi 2007 ICRISATMonino Acos Dubie Kabuli 2009 MEXICOMinjar ICCV 03107 Desi 2010 ICRISATAkuri ICCV 03402 Kabuli 2011 ICRISATKasech FLIP 95–31c Kabuli 2011 ICARDAKobo ICCV–01308 Kabuli 2012 ICRISATTeketay CJG-74xICCL-83105 Desi 2013 ICRISATDalota ICCX–940002 Desi 2013 ICRISAT

Conclusions ■ Ethiopian chickpea breeding program has enormously benefited from international collaborative research.

■ The most notable example was the response to wilt/root rot shown by Arerti (FLIP 98-84C) and Shasho (ICCV 93512) varieties.

■ AB resistant varieties such as Habru (FLIP 88-42C) were a solution to fungal disease problems.

■ Increasing genomic resources together with capacity building and support of projects such as TL III will revolutionize breeding with advanced breeding techniques.

■ Next steps will include exploitation of the existing indigenous genetic diversity and improvement of local landraces.

Trends in the area and productivity of chickpea in Ethiopia.

Chickpea

Area ('000 ha) Yield (Q/ha)

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