Introgression from wild Cicer reticulatum to cultivated chickpea for productivity and disease resistance

Interspecific hybridization is known to improve productivity and resistance to diseases in many crops. Therefore, an attempt was made to introgress productivity and disease resistance into chickpea from wild Cicer species. The true F₁ hybrids of cultivated chickpea genotypes ‘L550’ and ‘FGK45’ with C. reticulatum were backcrossed twice to their cultivated female parents to minimize the linkage drag of undesirable wild traits. The pedigree method was followed to advance the segregating populations from straight crosses (without backcross) and BC₁/BC₂ generations to F₅–F₇. The interspecific derivatives recorded up to a 16.9% increase over the check cultivars and a 25.2% increase over the female parent in a preliminary yield evaluation trial. Of the 22 interspecific derivatives thus derived, four desi and two kabuli lines were further evaluated for seed yield in replicated trials at three diverse locations. These lines possess a high degree of resistance to wilt, foot rot and root rot diseases, and recorded a 6.1–17.0% seed yield increase over the best check cultivars.