SCREENING OF CHICKPEA ADVANCED LINES FOR SOURCES OF RESISTANCE AGAINST BLIGHT AND WILT TWO MAJOR DISEASES OF CHICKPEA

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) an important food legume, ranks third in the world. In Pakistan yield of chickpea is low due to the prevalence of wilt and blight diseases - the two destructive diseases. The control measures available are not feasible and economical, except to exploit host plant resistance mechanism to identify the sources of resistance in existing chickpea germplasm. Fifty four advance chickpea genotypes were screened in blight screening nursery and wilt sick plot. Out of total 54 genotypes 23 were resistant and 16 were moderately resistant to Ascochyta blight disease. Among 23 resistant genotypes; K0058-09, K0062-09, K0066-09, D095-09, K07A005, BK05A015 and BK04A013 had disease rating mean of 3. The results of early wilt showed 19 genotypes as highly resistant and 15 as resistant. The genotypes K0070-09, BKK17106, CH 65/02 and BK04A013 were highly susceptible to wilt during early pathogen infection at seedling stage while the genotypes K0063-09, BKK17106 & BK04A013 were susceptible during late season. Resistance sources identified could be exploited directly and also may be transferred through hybridization to high yielding disease susceptible genotypes.