Vol. 11, Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
Preeti Pachauri and R. S. Sikarwar

Abstract:
Chickpea is a cool season, drought hardy grain legume crop that is grown in India, Africa, the Middle East, United States of America and Europe. Overall chickpea has great potential to enhance protein availability in drought prone areas. Although many improved chickpea cultivars are now available and many farmers still continue to grow old varieties and landraces. Thus, the achievements of improvement in chickpea research have not fully translated into increased productivity at the farm level. The chickpea productivity can be considerably enhanced by use of improved cultivars and associated improved production technologies. Generally, it was seen that farmers who do not adopt improved cultivars are also unwilling to adopt improved crop production technologies. Thus, improved cultivars provide an efficient vehicle for transfer of other improved crop production technologies. There is an urgent requirement to enhance improved cultivars seed production to ensure adequate availability of quality seed to the farmers. Because of the minor role of the private sector in seed production of legumes, the informal seed system (seed production by non-government organizations, farmers’ groups and individual farmers) plays a significant role in increasing availability of quality seed and adoption of improved cultivars. This study provides comprehensive information on improved seed production technologies for growing a healthy seed crop of chickpea and storage of chickpea seed.