AGROMORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISATION AND PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.) CONSERVED ON FARMS IN LEÓN PROVINCE (SPAIN)

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1 Legume Res., 36 (3) : , 2013 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE / indianjournals.com AGROMORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISATION AND PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.) CONSERVED ON FARMS IN LEÓN PROVINCE (SPAIN) J.B. Valenciano*, J.A. Boto, B. Reinoso and V. Marcelo Department of Agrarian Engineering and Sciences. University of León. Avda. Portugal León, Spain. Received: Accepted: ABSTRACT Chickpea is a traditional crop in the province of León (north-west Spain), where there are a wide range of cultivated varieties which are considered heterogeneous mixtures of genotypes. The aim of this research was to conduct a morphological and agricultural assessment of 119 chickpea ecotypes. The study was carried out in 2009 and 2010, using chickpeas collected in 2008 from traditional farms in the province of León. The results obtained showed differences in growth habit and plant height, as well as in seed characteristics and in yields. This preliminary assessment has enabled us to select 9 ecotypes presenting exceptional yield, aptitude for mechanisation and/or grain characteristics. Key words: Earliness, Growth habit, Harvest index, Kabuli type chickpea, Yield. INTRODUCTION Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an annual leguminous plant widely cultivated in the semi-arid tropics and in warm temperate zones (Van der Maesen et al. 2007). It is the principal grain legume crop grown in the Mediterranean region, and one of Europe s main chickpea-producing countries is Spain, where it is cultivated for its dry seeds: 30,726 ha of chickpea were cultivated in 2010 (Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente 2012). Nevertheless, there has been a significant decline in chickpea cultivation in Europe, and Knights et al. (2007) have suggested that one of the possible causes for this is the lack of public investment in research, breeding and technology transfer. Within Spain, chickpea has been cultivated in the province of León (north-west Spain) for many years (Madoz 1847), but chickpea cultivation in this region is also currently in decline. In León, chickpea is traditionally sown in spring and is mainly cultivated as a rain-fed crop; however, water stress often affects both productivity and yield stability. For centuries, many farmers in León have grown chi ckpeas for personal consumption and for local markets, traditionally using their own seed by selecting and saving part of * Corresponding author s joseb.valenciano@unileon.es their harvest, and these practices are still observed by the majority. Consequently, there is great variability in plant material. It is important to conserve and characterise local cultivars in order to avoid loss of genetic variability and to provide a potential source of genetic variation for future breeding programmes. H ence, the aim of this study was to characterise traditional chickpea cultivars in existence in the province of León (Spain) as a conservation measure and also for their subsequent use as the basis for obtaining designation of origin status for the León chickpea. MATERIALS AND METHODS The first step in characterisation of these traditional cultivars was to survey the various cultivation zones of León and collect material for assessment. Thus, one hundred and twenty-one populations of chickpea were collected in 2008 from farms located in traditional chickpea cultivation areas in the province of León (north-west Spain). Seed lots from these populations were sown under natural environmental conditions in a temperate Mediterranean climate (Papadakis 1961); all populations in two environments in spring 2009

2 246 LEGUME RESEARCH (Valdeviejas and San Pedro de las Dueñas, province of León), and again all populations in two environments in spring 2010 (Valdeviejas and Sueros de Cepeda, province of León). The experiments were conducted using a randomised block design with three replicates. Soils were neutral or slightly acidic, with a loam or sandy loam texture and low organic matter content in San Pedro de las Dueñas, and medium organic content in the other environments (Ankerman and Large (1974). The experimental fields were not fertilised for these experiments and conventional tillage was used for land preparation. The experimental plots were 8.25 m 2, with rows 0.55 m apart and a space between seeds of 0.15 m, using 100 seeds per plot. Sowing was carried out manually. No pests or diseases were observed during the experimental period. The populations were evaluated according to the IBPGR, ICRISAT and ICARDA descriptors (IBPGR, ICRISAT and ICARDA 1993). The followi ng quali tati ve characteristi cs were determined: growth habit, plant pigmentation, plant hairiness, number of leaflets per leaf, flower colour, pod dehiscence at maturity, seed shape, seed testa texture and absence or presence of minute black dots; and the following quantitative characteristics. On a plot average basis: days to 50% of emergence (days from sowing until 50% of plants in each plot had emerged), days to 50% of flowering (days from sowing until 50% of plants in each plot had at least one open flower) and days to maturity (days from sowing to the stage when over 90% of pods have matured and turned yellow).on ten plants randomly collected from each population: plant height (at the end of flowering in cm), dry pod length (at harvest), dry matter production per plant (in g at harvest), pods per plant (at harvest), seeds per pod (at harvest), 1,000 seed weight (determined from a sample of 100 representative chickpea seeds at harvest), grain yield (in g m -2 calculated from the yield components) and harvest index (calculated from dry matter production per plant and seed yield per plant). The data were analysed by analyses of variance using SPSS version 17.0, and different correlations were also calculated. A PCA with Varimax rotation was performed on the mean parameter values to determine the relationship between the parameters and the samples. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION All chickpea ecotypes were collected from small- and medium-sized farms employing traditional farming systems where chickpea is often grown for personal consumption and for local markets. All the chickpea ecotypes collected were identified as being kabuli-type seeds, according to Knights et al. (2007), and presented a wide range of variability. The kabulitype chickpea is rounded and large, with cream to white coloured seed. In León, there is a predominance of chickpea ecotypes with a semi-spreading growth habit (Table 1): however, erect and semi-erect growth habit cultivars are of most interest, as they facilitate mechanical harvesting. The predominant plant type was non-pigmented, pubescent, with a high number of leaflets per leaf and with white flowers. According to Redden and Berger (2007), other flower colours occur infrequently in kabuli types. Pod dehiscence, which is very important in preventing seed loss at full maturity, was low (< 10%) at harvest for all ecotypes, and the predominant seed type was an owl s head-shaped seed with rough testa and without black dots. Table 2 gives the average of collected characteristics with an indication of their significance following analysis of variance, together with their coefficient of variation. Significant differences between varieties were found for all the quantitative traits, except for seeds per pod. The earliest ecotypes reached maturity almost 2 weeks before the latest ecotypes, and those ecotypes that emerged more quickly also reached maturity earlier (0.830) (P< 0.01). Correlations also existed between the beginning of flowering and days to maturity (0.850) (P< 0.01), early flowering triggers early pod setting and may enable these pods to reach physiological maturity in a timely manner (Or et al., 1999). Earliness is the most important trait offering resistance to terminal drought and heat stress (Turner et al. 2001), and is also important for management factors associated with mechanised harvesting in chickpea. The ecotypes that reached the greatest height were over 50 cm tall, although plant height always varied between 20 and 100 cm. The number of pods per plant proved to be a highly variable yield

3 Vol. 36, No. 3, TABLE 1: Frequency of genotypes for morphological characteristics in on-farm conserved chickpea from León. Trait. Code Absolute frequency Relative frequency (%) Grow habit Erect 0-15º from vertical Semi-erect 16-25º from vertical Semi-spreading 26-60º from vertical Spreading 61-80º from vertical Postrate Branches flat on the ground Plant pigmentation No anthocyanin Steams and leaves green Low anthocyanin Steams and leaves partly light purple High anthocyanin Steams and leaves predominantly purple High purple Steams and leaves purple Plant hairiness Light pubescent Steams, leaves and pods light pubescent Pubescent Steams, leaves and pods pubescent Densely pubescent Steams, leaves and pods densely pubescent Number of leaflets per leaf > Flower colour White White group 155 D Pink Red-purple group 63 D Pod dehiscence < 10% dehiscence > 10% dehiscence Seed shape Angular Angular, ram s head Owl s head Irregular rounded, owl s head Pea-shaped Smooth round Testa texture Rough Smooth Tuberculated Black dots Absent Presence TABLE 2: Dry matter production at maturity of the main treatment with an indication of their significance following analysis of variance and their coefficient of variation (CV). (NS = not significant). Average value CV (%) of Accessions Days to 50 % emergence 14.6 * 32.6 Days to 50 % flowering 57.8 * 5.8 Days to maturity * 9.9 Plant height (cm) 48.6 * * 13.7 Dry matter production per plant (g) 32.5 * * 43.4 Dry pod length (mm) 2.33 * * 13.2 Pods per plant 51.4 *** 44.1 Seeds per pod 1.10 NS ,000 seed weight (g) *** 53.4 Grain yield (g m -2 ) *** 61.8 Harvest index (%) 39.4 *** 31.7

4 248 LEGUME RESEARCH and heat. Total DW was strongly correlated with seed yield (0.848) (P< 0.01), as has also been reported by Bhatia et al. (1993), Omar and Singh (1997) and Jeena and Arora (2001). However, in contrast to the results reported by Jeena and Arora (2001), total DW did not correlate with plant height, which might be explained by the fact that few varieties presented an erect growth habit. According to Kumar et al. (2002, 2012), it is the harvest index which exhibits the highest significant positive correlation with seed yield (0.735) (P< 0.01), followed by the number of pods per plant (0.714) (P< 0.01) and total DW (0.521) (P< 0.01). FIG.1: Analysis of main components for the registered characteristics. EM = Emergence, FB = Flowering beginning, PH = Plant height, DM = Days to maturity, PL = Dry pod length, PP = Pods per plant, SP = Seeds per pod, P1000 = 1,000 seed weight, DW = Dry weight per plant, Y = Yield and HI = Harvest Index. component compared to number of seeds per pod, which was relatively less variable (Bhatia et al. 1993). Thus, although the average number of pods per plant was 51.4, 6 ecotypes yielded less than 25 pods per plant and one ecotype yielded more than 100 pods per plant. This latter ecotype was also one of the most productive varieties, since the number of pods per plant was the most influential yield component, showing the strongest correlation (0.854) (P< 0.01) (Maiti and Wesche-Ebeling 2001). In addition, there was high variation in seed size; seeds from the variety producing the biggest seeds were 85% larger than those from the variety producing the smallest seeds. According to Delouche (1998), large-seeded chickpea varieties are the most susceptible to physical injury, especially when seed moisture content is lower than %. The largest seeds were found inside the longest pods. Yield also had a wide range of variability (CV 61.8%), with the most productive ecotypes exceeding 200 gm -2, whereas the less productive ecotypes did not reach 40 gm -2. The most productive ecotypes were also the earliest (0.265) (P< 0.05), and according to Toker et al. (2007), they offer greater resistance to drought A PCA with Varimax rotation was applied to facilitate interpretation of the correlation matrix produced from the parameters for the four environments and 119 cultivars. The PCA plots gave a visual overview of how different parameters were influenced by the different environments and cultivars. The principal components of 1, 2, and 3 had Eigen values that were greater than 1.0, and the first three principal components (PCs) explained 77.27% of the total variance (PC1: 32.78%; PC2: 29.97%; PC3: 14.51%) (Figure 1). The loading plot for the first two PCs indicated that some of the parameters described the same variation among the samples. Earliness attributes formed the underlying dimension for factor I, with parameters such as emergence (0.92), beginning of flowering (0.92), days to maturity (0.92) and seeds per pod (0.55) loading positively; whereas plant height (-0.81) was negatively loaded and placed on the left-hand side of the plot. The second PC explained % of variance and showed a positive correlation with production attributes, with parameters such as pods per plant (0.95), yield (0.93), dry matter production (0.86) and HI (0.84). The third PC was loaded with 1,000 seed weight (0.85) and dry pod length (0.85). The high correlation between earliness attributes (emergence, beginning of flowering and days to maturity) found in the PCA confirms the information given in Table 2. In contrast, plant height was inversely correlated since it was associated negatively with earliness. On the other hand, the high correlation between production attributes (pods per plant, yield,

5 dry matter production and harvest index) confirms that the number of pods per plant was the most influential yield component. In conclusion, this preliminary assessment has enabled us to select 9 ecotypes that are Vol. 36, No. 3, exceptional for their yield, aptitude for mechanisation and/or grain characteristics. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by Diputación de León (León, Spain). REFERENCES Ankerman, D., and Large, R. (1974) Soil and plant analysis. A& L Agricultural Laboratories, Inc. New York, United States. Bhatia, V.S., Singh, B.N., and Lal, S. (1993) Variability and interrelationship of yield and its attributes in chickpea. Indian J Pulses Res 6: 1 5. Delouche, J.C. (1998) Seed storage practices and problems for cool season legumes.world crops: cool season food legumes. Summerfield, R.J., Ed. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. pp IBPGR, ICRISAT and ICARDA. (1993) Descriptors for chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). International Board for Plant Genetic Resources, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Rome, Italy. Jeena, A.S., and Arora P.P. (2001). Correlation between yield and its components in chickpea. Legume Res 24: Knights, E.J., Açikgöz, N., Warkentin, T., Bejiga, G., Yadav, S.S., and Sandhu, J.S. (2007) Area, production and distribution. In: Chickpea breeding and management. Yadav, S.S., Redden, R., Chen, W., and Sharma, B., Eds. CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon, United Kingdom. pp Kumar, S., Arora, P.P., and Jeena, A.S. (2002). Correlation analysis in chickpea. Agr Sci Digest 22(2): Kumar, A., Suresh Babu, G., and Roopa Lavanya, G. (2012). Character association and path analysis in early segregating population in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Legume Res 35(4): Madoz, P. (1847) Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de España y sus posesiones de ultramar. Madrid, Spain. Maiti, R.K., and Wesche-Ebeling, P. (2001) Vegetative and reproductive growth and productivity. In: Advances in chickpea science. Maiti, R., and Wesche-Ebeling P. Ed. Science Publishers, Enfield, NH, USA. pp Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Medio Rural y Marino. (2012) Anuario de estadística Madrid, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Medio Rural y Marino, Madrid, Spain. Omar, M., and Singh, K.B. (1997) Increasing seed yield in chickpea by increased biomass yield. Int Chickpea Pigeonpea Newsl 4: 14. Or, E., Hovav, R. and Abbo, S. (1999). A major gene for flowering time in chickpea. Crop Sci 39(2): Papadakis, P. (1961). Climatic tables for the world. P. Papadakis, Buenos Aires, Argentine. Redden, R.J., and Berger, J.D. (2007) History and origin of chickpea. In: Chickpea breeding and management. Yadav, S.S., Redden, R., Chen, W., and Sharma, B., Eds. CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon, CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon, United Kingdom. pp Toker, C., Lluch, C., Tejera, N.A., Serraj, R., and Siddique, K.H.M. (2007) Abiotic stresses. In: Chickpea breeding and management. Yadav, S.S., Redden, R., Chen, W., and Sharma, B., Eds. CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon, United Kingdom. pp Turner, N.C., Wright, G.C., and Siddique, K.H.M. (2001) Adaptation of grain legumes (pulses) to water-limited environments. Adv. Agron. 71: Van der Maesen, L.J.G., Maxted, N., Javadi, F., Coles, S., and Davies, A.M.R. (2007) Taxonomy of the Genus Cicer revisited. In: Chickpea breeding and management. Yadav, S.S., Redden, R., Chen, W., and Sharma, B., Eds. CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon, United Kingdom. pp