Improving Chickpea Adaptation to Environmental Challenges in Australia and India

Principal Investigator: Rajeev Varshney

Period: 2016-2019

Investor: Indo-Australian Biotechnology Fund (IABF), Department of Biotechnology, Government of India

Synopsis: Chickpea is one of the major pulses produced in both countries and contributes significantly as source of needed protein in vegetarian diets. However, there is a huge gap in supply and demand of chickpea due to limited supply. Chickpea production is hampered by several biotic and abiotic stresses. Drought, heat and salinity among abiotic and Ascochyta blight among biotic stresses are major production constraints. Therefore, development of improved cultivars with enhanced yield and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses is quite essential. As part of several collaborative projects, ICRISAT has generated huge resources including molecular markers associated with drought and salinity tolerance, resistance to fusarium wilt (FW) and ascochyta blight (AB) in chickpea. The proposal plans to use generated genomic resources for undertaking both high-quality research as well as translate existing/to be generated genomics research in developing superior varieties/ lines of chickpea. This project aims to identify and deliver genetic improvements in chickpea that will support breeding for enhanced abiotic and biotic stress.

Source: ICRISAT happenings