Selection of Drought Tolerant High Yielding Chickpea Genotypes based on Field Performance and Genetic Variation in Bangladesh

Background: Drought is the most familiar abiotic stress limiting chickpea production. Genotypes may vary in their capacity to tolerate drought stress. Therefore, the study was undertaken to find out suitable genotypes in the drought prone ecosystems. Methods: The experiments were carried out at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur, Bangladesh during 2017 and 2018 with thirty chickpea genotypes and four moisture stresses. Through cluster analysis, genotypes were distinguished in five clusters based on similarity in characters. Result: Among the thirty chickpea genotypes BD-6048 and BD-6045 were found the most droughts tolerant based on field performance. Dendrogram was prepared based on similarity by Euclidean distance among genotypes. Dendrogram showed that members falling in clusters III and IV were more diverse. Data certified that significant genetic variation exists in chickpea genotypes in performance of various attributes in this study and these genotypes can potentially be used for chickpea breeding program.