Collecfion of chickpea germplasm in Madhya Pradesh, India and their agronomic evaldation

Three-hundred-and-fifty-one seed samples of local chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.) were collected in Madhya Pradesh, India, during 1986 and 1987 for the world germplasm collection maintained at ICRISAT Centre. These missions were joint efforts of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya(JNKVV), Jabalpur, and the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi. Vast variability was noticed for several morphoagronomic traits of chickpea during these missions. The collected samples were sorted out into relatively homogenous samples and later grouped into five homogenous sets for easy evaluation. These sets were evaluated for eight agronomic traits at ICR/SAT Centre (18°N) and Gwalior (26°N). The performance of accessions for seeds per pod and 100-seed mass were almost similar at both locations whereas other agronomic characters varied with locations. The accessions with superior performance in five sets and two locations were identified