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 -5oC at seedling stage. Based on our findings, Ethiopian
chickpea germplasm has a genetic potential for frost-tolerance traits for use in breeding
programs.