DEVELOPMENT OF SELECTION CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT OF CHICKPEA (Cicer arientum L.) ON PHYSIO-MORPHIC ATTRIBUTES UNDER DROUGHT STRESS AT SEEDLING STAGE AND MATURITY

Chickpea is one of the pivotal legume due to its nutritious value and used all over the world as food for human and feed for animals. Drought is effecting grain yield up to 30-40% in chickpea. The initial move towards improvement of drought tolerance in chickpea is to screen existing germplasm. The experiment conducted in Pulses Research Institute Faisalabad in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. Ten Desi chickpea and 10 Kabuli chickpea genotypes assessed at seedling stage on physio-morphic traits. Desi chickpea genotypes D-14005, D-13011 and Kabuli chickpea K-01216, K-14004 lines had maintained root/shoot ratio, relative water contents and excised leaf water loss under 50% FC and 100% FC. Five best performing Kabuli chickpea genotypes and five Desi chickpea genotypes further evaluated for drought tolerance and grain yield in field with regular irrigation and drought. The physiological traits included excised leaf water loss, cell membrane thermostability, photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and chlorophyll contents recorded at anthesis and yield related traits days to flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of grains per plant, 100-grain weight and grain yield per plant recorded at maturity indicated Desi Line D-14005and Kabuli line K-14004 are drought tolerant. The selection criteria developed for identifying drought tolerant chickpea genotypes is very efficient.