Identification of Large-Seeded High-Yielding Stable Kabuli Chickpea Germplasm Lines for Use in Crop Improvement

Seed size is an important trait in kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). The kabuli chickpeas with a 100-seed weight of >40 g garner higher market price as they are preferred by consumers. The objective of this study was to evaluate a sample of chickpea landraces, breeding lines, and cultivars for morphological traits and yield and identify lines that are high yielding and exhibit stable performance across environments. We evaluated 65 large-seeded kabuli lines identified from the ICRISAT germplasm collection in three sets, 18 trials, and 13 environments for 22 qualitative and quantitative traits. Several highly significant correlations were observed in all three sets and a few large-seeded high-yielding lines with stable yield were selected. Two extra-large-seeded (100-seed weight >50 g) lines ICC 17109 (Blanco Sinaloa 92), a breeding line, and ICC 17452 (CuGa 288), a landrace, both originating from Mexico showed high yield potential and were moderately stable across environments. The small-seeded control cultivars, though high yielding, were highly unstable, performing better only in favorable environments. The study has also shown that some vegetative characteristics were more sensitive to stress than yield and yield components, hence selection in unfavorable environments should be based on grain yield and its components.