Use of climatic parameters to predict the global distribution of Ascochyta blight on chickpea

Abstract

Climatic data of areas where chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is grown were analyzed by stepwise discriminant analysis to identify parameters that allow a discrimination of locations with and without occurrence of Ascochyta blight (caused by Ascochyta rabiei). A discriminant function was computed, based on mean daily temperature in month 1 of the vegetation, mean precipitation in month 2, average precipitation per rainy day in months 1 and 2, and mean number of rainy days in months 1 and 2 (.)