Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an annual food legume, self-pollinated crop and belongs to the family Fabaceae. It is cultivated for its high protein content along with fiber, mineral and vitamins. Gujarat has the longest coastline in India and is about 1,600 km long. Soils of these coastline areas have salinity load and their concentration varies from region to region. Despite the importance of chickpeas and the huge coastal area in the state; there is no concrete researched scientific information on chickpea cultivation and its physiological behavior on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) of the crop under salinity stress. Hence the present investigation had been aimed to evaluate the level of salinity stress of chickpeas by deploying seed germination experiments. Seawater samples were collected from the Arabian sea and nine different concentrations of seawater were taken to test the level of salinity stress for seed germination. It was observed that the highest seed germination rate was in 0% marine water i.e., 95.7% germination rate; which is at par with 1%, 2.5% and 5% marine water concentration. Decreasing trends in germination rate were noticed with the increase of marine water concentration and the least germination rate was 0% in the case of 100% marine water. It was concluded that up to 5% marine water, chickpeas can germinate, grow and cultivation may be possible; whereas, above 5% it is toxic to plants for germination and growth. As per our knowledge, this is the first-time report from the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, especially for GJG 6 cultivar. The resultant information may be helpful for coastal farmers of Gujarat towards Good Agricultural Practices of chickpeas. © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Society for Plant Research 2023.
