Cold Feat

Researchers at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Aleppo, Syria, have developed cold-tolerant chickpea that can be grown in winter. This development will almost double the yield of the crop, which is traditionally sown in the spring.

As the Mediterranean environment experiences rain mainly during the winter months, planting chickpea during this period allows for very efficient water use, as compared with the spring crop, which grows on moisture conserved in the soil. The problem, however, is that the winter-sown crop is exposed to low temperatures and the risk of frost.

Scientists at ICARDA have developed a reliable screening technique for cold tolerance evaluations in areas of low to medium altitude in the countries of Central and West Asia and North Africa.

"Though people in the region experienced excessively severe cold conditions this winter, the chickpea scientists at ICARDA are happy that the cold spell has helped to screen chickpea breeding materials that can resist such extreme temperatures," comments Maarten van Ginkel, ICARDA's deputy director general for research.

R.S. Malhotra, ICARDA's senior chickpea breeder, says that severe cold would likely kill most of the traditionally spring-grown cultivars in the region if they were planted in winter. Meanwhile, the newly developed winter chickpea cultivars have survived and look very promising.

To assess their cold tolerance, the winter chickpea lines were planted on 1 October 2007. By 15 January, the crop had experienced 33 days of sub-freezing temperatures and a minimum temperature of –12 degrees Celsius.

Imtiaz Muhammad, a chickpea breeder and geneticist at ICARDA, reports that the lines exhibiting cold tolerance are derived from otherwise superior chickpea lines crossed with highly cold-tolerant lines of the wild ancestral species, Cicer reticulatum.

The cold-tolerant lines developed at ICARDA are being shared with national agriculture research systems in the countries of Central and West Asia and North Africa to test their adaptation to various conditions and their yield.

A large number of lines with some cold tolerance and resistance to ascochyta blight, developed at ICARDA, have already been noted to exhibit adaptation in parts of the region and have recently been released for general cultivation and winter sowing. The new materials will further strengthen cold tolerance, allowing for even wider adaptation and adoption. Winter chickpea is already becoming popular with the farmers in the region, some of whom have reported very high yields of as much as 3 tons per hectare.