This document provides an update on chickpea productivity improvement activities in Kenya as part of the Tropical Legumes I project. It summarizes progress made in data management, insect and drought tolerance screening, modern breeding efforts including marker-assisted backcrossing and selection, and initial use of a tablet computer for field data collection. Key activities include phenotyping for insect resistance and drought tolerance, developing breeding lines with improved root traits through MABC, and multi-location testing of advanced lines. Data from these efforts is being processed and will be submitted to the chickpea data manager. The tablet is found to be useful for field book preparation and data entry but has limitations under bright sunlight and dirty field conditions.

1. Obj 4: Improve chickpea productivity for
marginal environments in sub-Saharan Africa
and Asia-Kenya
Progress of Data management -
Kenya
Paul Kimurto
Egerton University
TL-I Annual Meeting
9-15 April 2012, Addis, Ethiopia

2. Partners involved
Institution Key scientists
Egerton University Paul Kimurto,Richard
Mulwa, Bernard Towett ,
Alice Kosgei, Serah Songok,
Moses Oyier, Oyoo
ICRISAT-India Rajeev Varshney, Pooran Gaur,
Thudi Mahender, Trushar Shar,
Prasad
ICRISAT-Nairobi Ganga Rao, Said Silim, Kaloki
Peter

3. Status of chickpea Data sets
Progress -Phase I (2007-10) & Phase II (2011-2012)
• Activity 3: INSECT RESISTANCE- Phenotyping reference sets for
insect resistance
• Activity 4: DROUGHT TOLERANCE-Phenotyping selected minicore
samples for drought tolerance
• Activity 5: MODERN BREEDING-Improve locally adapted germplasm
for drought tolerance and yield traits through modern breeding

4. Activity 3 & 4: Insect & Drought tolerance
Activity 3; Insect Resistance screening
Screening of International Helicoverpa resistance nursery of 30 lines
in Kenya (2008/2009)
Data submitted to TL1 chickpea data manager
Activity 4; Drought tolerance
1. Phenotyping of 289 genotypes of reference and mapping
population for drought tolerance, HI, seed size and yield in 2
locations Kenya 2007-2009
Data submitted to TL1 chickpea data manager
2. Phenotyping of 80 genotypes for yield, HI, seed size and yield in
2 locations (root reference set) 2008-2009
Data submitted to TL1 chickpea data manager

5. Activity 3 & 4: Insect & Drought tolerance
3. Phenotyping 140 advanced chickpea breeding lines for
Helicoverpa armigera resistance in 2 sites –under TLII Msc
student-Nancy Njogu-Msc student (2010-2011)
Data completed to be submitted to Data manager in 2012

6. Activity 5: Improve locally adapted
germplasm for target traits through
modern breeding
1. Introgression of QTL root traits using MABC for improving
drought tolerance
• ICCV 97105 (recipient parent) x ICC 4958 (donor
parent)
-BC3F2 & BC4F1 progenies available to be evaluated
in 2 locations in 2012
• ICCV 95423 x ICC 4958 and ICCV 10 x ICC 4958
• -BC3F4 progenies available for evaluation in April
2012 in 2 locations
Genotypic and phenotpic data to be submitted to Data
manager 2012

7. Activity 5: MABC Contd…..
2. Multi-location evaluation BC3F4 lines-24 lines of JG 11 x
ICC 4958 in 2 locations in Kenya (Nov 2011-March 2012)
Data is being processed for submission to data manager

8. Marker-assisted recurrent selection
(MARS)
• 2. Application of MARS
• Good parental cross
• JG 11 x ICCV 04112
• JG 130 x ICCV 05107
• Phenotyping of 188 progenies of each population of F3:5
and F3:6 lines in 2 seasons (2010/2012)
• After genotyping and phenotyping -Recombination cycle of
best 8 progenies will be done to enhance yield traits
• Data is being processed for submission to data manager

9. Status of Tablet Computer
•Tablet computer was received in 2011 in Hyderabad
during TLI AGM
•Planned to use in April 2012 planting season to prepare
Nursery books and Fieldbooks
•Challenge-Data coding of germplasm list was needed we
could not transfer directly from excel sheet but needed
coding
•Consulted Akinnola and now it will be used in second site
trial-May 2012

10. Status of Tablet Computer
Suitability for use in trials
•Overall use in preparation and setting up of trials is very
good
•Inputing field layout, sites, location, partners etc
makes work easy and reduces errors
•No need for printing field books in advance
•Can be replicated by many users
•Good especially in reducing manual randomization

11. Status of Tablet Computer
Suitability for use in trials
•Import and export functions-Loading of traits to be
measured from Trait dictionary makes preparation for
trials very easy and effective
•Data entry is easy especially with touch screen
•Large and Excellent screen for taking photos
•Battery hours is adequate

12. Status of Tablet Computer
•Limitations
•Under bright sunshine feasibility is low-readings a
problem
•Delicate and can break
•Fields are dirty and tablet requires a lot of
neatness from user

13. Thanks alot