Evaluation of a World Collection of Chickpea Germ Plasm Accessions for Resistance to Ascochyta Blight

A world collection of 9,574 desi and 3,836 kabuli germ plasm accessions of chickpea (Cicer arietinum) was evaluated for Ascochyta blight (Ascochyta rabiei) resistance at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) research farm at Tel-Hadya near Aleppo, Syria, during four crop seasons (1978–1979 to 1981–1982). Desi accessions were obtained from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), based in India, and the kabuli types were from ICARDA. The evaluation was carried out with artificial inoculations in the field. Promising lines from initial screening were reevaluated at Tel-Hadya and at two other sites: Lattakia, a coastal site in Syria, and Terbol, in the Beqa’a Valley of Lebanon. Lines with low disease severity during both the vegetative and podding stages were considered resistant. Eleven kabuli and six desi accessions were resistant to moderately resistant to Ascochyta blight. Another seven kabuli and 40 desi accessions were tolerant. Many lines resistant during the vegetative stage became susceptible during podding. In general, kabuli sources had better host-plant resistance than desi types. Frequency of resistance was also higher in kabuli types (0.29%) than in desi types (0.06%). The resistant kabuli accessions were ILC 72, ILC 196, ILC 201, ILC 202, ILC 2506, ILC 2956, ILC 3274, ILC 3279, ILC 3346, ILC 3956, and ILC 4421. The resistant desi accessions were ICC 3634, ICC 4200, ICC 4248, ICC 4368, ICC 5124, and ICC 6981