Evaluation of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes for tolerance to Frost in controlled environment

Abstract

The study aimed to evaluate the frost tolerance variability of Ethiopian chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) germplasm under controlled environment using growth chamber. A total of 72 genotypes were screened for frost tolerance using complete randomized design with two replications. The analysis of variance result indicated that there was a significant (P<0.01) difference amongst genotypes for plant height, number of foliage, number of primary branch, growth rate, and fresh biomass weight. Based on plant survival rate (SR), 31 (43.1%) genotypes scored above 0.8 values. Based on Freezing tolerance rate (FTR), 37(51.4%) and 31(43.1%) genotypes were rated at a score of 1 to 3 in freezing test 1 (T1) and freezing test 2 (T2), respectively. There was a strong negative correlation between fresh biomass yields with SR (-0.75^** for T1 and -0.71^** for T2 at p<0.01), while a strong positive correlation with FTR value (0.74^** at p<0.01). Based on the combined result of FTR and SR scores, 26 genotypes were found to be frost-tolerant genotypes at a temperature level as low as -5^oC at seedling stage. Based on our findings, Ethiopian chickpea germplasm has a genetic potential for frost-tolerance traits for use in breeding programs.