Stabilizing yield and quality: early maturing chickpea for the prairies

Abstract

Progress in chickpea breeding has been constrained by lack of good sources of early maturity in the short-season temperate environment of western Canada. We hypothesized that the length of the chickpea life-cycle could be reduced through introgression of strategic genetic traits including short internode, double podding and early flowering. The result showed that both the double podding and early flowering traits had significant beneficial effects by reducing the duration of crop maturity in chickpea in the short-season temperate environment of western Canada. Pyramiding double podding, early flowering and other strategic genetic traits should lead to the development of extra short duration chickpea varieties more suited for cultivation in the Prairies and similar environments.