A study was conducted to evaluate the diversity among chickpeas accessions
collected from Jordan for some morpho-agronomic traits, specially yield and its
components. The evaluated material consisted of 137 accessions and three
improved cultivars
released in Jordan. The study was conducted at the Jordan
University of Science and Technology Research Station using the augmented
design. Some of the parameters used in the evaluation included the mean,
standard deviation, range, coefficient of variation, diversity index. Also, a
dendrogram to establish the relationship among locations where landraces
were originally developed.
Results indicated the presence of significant variability for all traits under
investigation. Diversity index values (H′) exceeded 0.50 for all characters with
the highest value for biological yield (0.84), followed by lowest pod height
(0.82), grain yield (0.78), and straw yield (0.78).
The following accessions were found to be superior over the improved
cultivars in one or more of the studied characters: ILC 6941, ILC 6938, ILC
4411, and ILC 4096. These are important genetic resources for breeders to
improve the chickpea crop.
The results indicated the importance of the local landraces as a source of
genetic variability that should be conserved, evaluated and utilized by breeders
to improve the crop productivity and quality.
