Three new chickpea varieties have been developed with enhanced drought tolerance, disease resistance, and increased yield. These varieties were created using genomics-assisted breeding by ICRISAT and ICAR. The new varieties are awaiting approval for cultivation by Indian farmers. Genomics-assisted breeding has delivered six high-yielding chickpea varieties to India in the last three years. Improved chickpea varieties are needed due to drought threats in chickpea growing regions, as drought can cause up to 60% yield losses annually. ICRISAT is leading efforts in genetic analysis of drought tolerance and disease resistance in chickpea using advanced sequencing technologies.

1. Newsletter
Happenings
In-house version 8 Oct 2021, No.1927
Three new chickpea varieties, with enhanced drought
tolerance, disease resistance and increased yield, are
set to become available to the Indian farmers. These
have been notified to be available for cultivation by the
Central Varietal Release Committee.
Calling for the deployment of ‘fast-forward breeding’, a
newly conceived framework that promises faster
delivery of varieties to farmers, Dr Rajeev Varshney,
Research Program Director – Accelerated Crop
Improvement, ICRISAT, who coordinated the integration
of genomics-assisted breeding activities for developing
these varieties, said, “Counting three other varieties
released in 2019 and 2020, genomics-assisted breeding
has delivered six high-yielding chickpea varieties in India
during the last three years.”
Why chickpea improvement?
Dr Arvind Kumar, ICRISAT’s Deputy Director General-
Research, pointed to the threat of drought in chickpea-
New climate-resilient, disease-resistant chickpea
varieties coming farmers’ way
Developed through genomics-assisted breeding by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and ICRISAT
growing regions of India while explaining the need for
sustained and continued research to improve the crop.
“Drought alone causes up to 60% annual yield losses in
chickpea. The changing climate warrants development
of cultivars that can attain their maximum potential
under drought stress in rainfed environments as well as
in disease-prone environments,” Dr Kumar said.
ICRISAT, in collaboration with ICAR, has been leading the
efforts for genetic dissection of drought tolerance and
Fusarium wilt resistance in chickpea using the most
advanced sequencing and genotyping technologies at its
Center of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology.
Collectively called genomics-assisted breeding, these
approaches are being deployed by ICAR institutes such
as ICAR-IIPR, ICAR-IARI and several state agricultural
universities, in collaboration with ICRISAT, to develop
high-yielding, disease-resistant and nutrition-dense
varieties faster than ever before.
File photo.
Photo: ICRISAT