Breeding Chickpea for Early Phenology: Perspectives, Progress and Prospects

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is currently grown in over 50 countries representing a wide range of environments and cropping systems. Phenology (time to flowering, podding and maturity) is an important component of crop adaptation in these environments. Crop maturity ranges from 80 to 180 days depending on genotype, soil moisture, time of sowing, latitude and altitude. However, in at least two-thirds of the chickpea growing area, the available crop-growing season is short (90-120 days) due to risk of drought or temperature extremities at the end of season (pod filling stage of the crop). About 73% of the global chickpea area is in South and Southeast Asia where chickpea is largely grown rainfed in the post-rainy season on receding soil moisture and often experiences terminal drought and heat stresses. Early phenology is also important in autumn-sown rainfed crop in Mediterranean-type environments for escape from terminal drought, as in Australia; and in summer-grown crop in the temperate environments for escape from frost at the end of season, as in Canada. Early phenology is also needed for promotion of chickpea to rice-fallows and other late sown conditions of south Asia. Hence, development of early maturing cultivars is one of the major objectives in chickpea breeding programs of International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, India and in several countries, including India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Australia and Canada. Several short-duration cultivars with resistance to fusarium wilt have been developed which have made significant impacts on enhancing chickpea area and production in central and southern India, Myanmar and Ethiopia. Efforts are being made to combine earliness with resistance to ascochyta blight and chilling tolerance for enhancing adaptation of chickpea to short-season Mediterranean regions and temperate environments. Early and extra-early cultivars are expected to play key role in expanding chickpea area in new niches where available crop growing season is short.