The chickpea improvement program released 24 improved varieties (17 national and 7 regional) The released/pipeline varieties have traits such as: • large seed (64 g/100 seed weight) • Disease resistance (Ascochyta blight/Fusarium wilt) • Drought tolerance (MABC) • Early maturing • High yielding • Machine harvestable • Heat tolerant The average yield gain due to these varieties is 2-3 fold over landrace varieties Projects such as TL II have aggressively supported variety development, release and dissemination through integrated seed systems Integration of the formal and informal seed production and distribution system has enhanced availability With the uptake of these varieties and associated production packages, the national productivity has been on steady increase.

1. Feb2016
Sciencewithahumanface
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An Overview of Chickpea Improvement
Program of Ethiopia
Introduction
■■ Chickpea is grown by over 1 million households on 13.2% of the total
crop acreage and forms 14.8% of the total production in Ethiopia
■■ The current national chickpea productivity is 1.91 t/ha, way lower
than the crop potential of 6t/ha
■■ Some of the challenges in chickpea production include:
• use of low yielding local landraces
• susceptibility to a/biotic stresses
• poor crop management practices
• use of low quality seed
■■ The national chickpea crop improvement program works with local
and international partners to address these constraints.
Methods
■■ The crop improvement program uses the following approaches
• Collection of local germplasm and selection,
• Germplasm introductions (ICRISAT through TL I, II & II/ICARDA)
■■ Hybridization followed selection
■■ Preliminary variety trials
■■ National variety trials
■■ Variety verification trial
■■ Lines that successfully go through these processes are released as
new varieties and recorded in the national register.
Million Eshete1
*, Mekasha Chichaymelu1
, Lijalem Korbu1
, Ridwan Mohammed1
, Nigusie Girma1
, Dagnachew Bekele1
, Asnake Fikre2
, Ganga Rao
NVPR3
, Chris O Ojiewo4
, Emmanuel Monyo3
, Moses Siambi3
, Pooran M Gaur5
, Rajeev K Varshney5
and Zewdie Bishaw6
1
DebreZeit Agric. Research Center, EIAR, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia; 2
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, EIAR, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 3
Grain Legumes, ICRISAT, Kenya;
4
Grain Legumes, ICRISAT, Ethiopia; 5
ICRISAT, India; 6
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
Contact:
Email: million102001@yahoo.com
Results
■■ The chickpea improvement program released 24 improved varieties (17 national
and 7 regional)
■■ The released/pipeline varieties have traits such as
• large seed (64 g/100 seed weight)
• Disease resistance (Ascochyta blight/Fusarium wilt)
• Drought tolerance (MABC)
• Early maturing
• High yielding
• Machine harvestable
• Heat tolerant
■■ The average yield gain due to these varieties is 2-3 fold over landrace varieties
■■ Projects such as TL II have aggressively supported variety development, release
and dissemination through integrated seed systems
■■ Integration of the formal and informal seed production and distribution system
has enhanced availability
■■ With the uptake of these varieties and associated production packages, the
national productivity has been on steady increase.
Improved chickpea varieties released in Ethiopia and their sources.
Variety Pedigree Type Release year Source
DZ-10-11 DZ-10-11 Desi 1974 Local collections
DZ-10-4 DZ-10-4 Kabuli 1974 Local collections
Dubie PGRC Desi 1978 Local collections
Mariye ICCX-730089 Desi 1985 ICRISAT
Worku ICCL 82104 Desi 1994 ICRISAT
Akaki ICCL 82106 Desi 1995 ICRISAT
Shasho ICCV 93512 Kabuli 1999 ICRISAT
Arerti FLIP-89-84c Kabuli 1999 ICARDA
Chefe ICCV 92318 Kabuli 2004 ICRISAT
Habru FLIP-88-42c Kabuli 2004 ICARDA
Kutaye ICCV 92003 Desi 2005 ICRISAT
Ejere FLIP-97-263c Kabuli 2005 ICARDA
Teji FLIP 97-266c Kabuli 2005 ICARDA
Yelibe ICC 14808 Kabuli 2006 ICRISAT
Fetenech ICCV 92069 Desi 2006 ICRISAT
Mastewal ICCV-92006 Desi 2006 ICRISAT
Natoli ICCX-910112-6 Desi 2007 ICRISAT
Monino Acos Dubie Kabuli 2009 MEXICO
Minjar ICCV 03107 Desi 2010 ICRISAT
Akuri ICCV 03402 Kabuli 2011 ICRISAT
Kasech FLIP 95–31c Kabuli 2011 ICARDA
Kobo ICCV–01308 Kabuli 2012 ICRISAT
Teketay CJG-74xICCL-83105 Desi 2013 ICRISAT
Dalota ICCX–940002 Desi 2013 ICRISAT
Conclusions
■■ Ethiopian chickpea breeding program has enormously benefited from
international collaborative research.
■■ The most notable example was the response to wilt/root rot shown by Arerti
(FLIP 98-84C) and Shasho (ICCV 93512) varieties.
■■ AB resistant varieties such as Habru (FLIP 88-42C) were a solution to fungal
disease problems.
■■ Increasing genomic resources together with capacity building and support
of projects such as TL III will revolutionize breeding with advanced breeding
techniques.
■■ Next steps will include exploitation of the existing indigenous genetic diversity
and improvement of local landraces.
Trends in the area and productivity of chickpea in Ethiopia.
Chickpea
Area ('000 ha) Yield (Q/ha)
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the CGIAR Consortium