Screening of Chickpea Genotypes for Resistance against Fusarium Wilt

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is one of the world’s major legume crops and suffers substantial damage from wilt disease incited by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri (Padwick) with yield loss over 60 per cent. The screening for new resistance chickpea genotypes against this disease is an alternative approach to avoid indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides. In this study 55 chickpea genotypes were screened against Fusarium wilt. Out of 55 chickpea genotypes studied, only one genotype was found to be resistant and 12 were found to be moderately resistance. Nineteen genotypes showed moderately susceptible. However, nineteen and four genotypes showed susceptible and highly susceptible reaction for wilt disease, respectively.