Disease Resistance Breeding in Chickpea

Abstract

Forty years ago, in 1941, the first disease-resistant chickpea cultivar, F 8, was released for commercial production in British India. Since then many cultivars possessing disease resistance have been bred and released. However, some factors such as epidemiology and variability in pathogens have not been properly understood. they have not been incorporated into breeding research. Consequently, cultivars initially resistant to a disease later succumb to it. For example, ascochyta blight-resistant cultivars suffer from prolonged conditions favorable to blight. and fusarium wilt-resistant cultivars suffer from other soil-borne diseases that are present with it in the soil. Because of these conditions. disease-resistant cultivars never have been very popular with farmers. To understand the host-pathogen relationship. a consultancy meeting of breeders and pathologists was called and the problem was debated fully. The discussion focused on understanding the pathogens, breeding strategies, and other methods of disease control. Both strategic and applied research were deliberated and areas for future research were identified.