RESPONSE OF CHICKPEA GENOTYPES TO DROUGHT STRESS IN PETRI DISH ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), an important leguminous crop has a dwindling crop
area everyday due to climate change, and the overall yield has declined. In a controlled condition
experiment, four distinct levels of drought were applied to ten different varieties of chickpeas in a petri
dish using polyethylene glycol (PEG) @ 0, 10, 20, and 30%. As differentiating factors, germination
rate, plumule, and radicle lengths were used. The experiment's results showed that, at 0% PEG, KK-2
and Punjab-2008 demonstrated the highest germination rates (99%), while the lowest (0%)
germination rates at (30% PEG) were recorded for Chattan and KK-1 genotypes. At 0% polyethylene
glycol (PEG), Chattan and Punjab-2008 had the maximum plumule (0.70 cm) and radicle (7.47 cm)
lengths, respectively and with increasing drought they got reduced. Thus, it may be inferred that
drought impacted negatively but its impact can be lessened by adopting genotypes that are drought
resistant.