Prospects of new chickpea varieties in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh is an important chickpea growing state in southern India, with spectacular increase in chickpea area from 120,000 ha in 1997/98 to 638,000 ha in 2007/08. The chickpea revolution in Andhra Pradesh has improved the prospects of many resource-poor, small land holding and rainfed farmers of Andhra Pradesh. However, the growing season of chickpea in Andhra Pradesh is warm and short (90-110 days), and drought is the foremost factor responsible for significant yield losses. Rainfall in major chickpea-growing regions is quite uncertain and erratic, resulting in poor yields. The Regional Agricultural Research Station of Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh, India is the lead centre responsible for location-specific research in chickpea in Andhra Pradesh. With support from ICRISAT and ICAR, the centre has initiated crop improvement programmes during 2004 and has released four promising chickpea varieties for commercial cultivation. Three desi varieties viz., Nandyal Sanaga 1(NBeG 3), Dheera (NBeG 47), and Nandyal Gram 49 (NBeG 49) released for Andhra Pradesh and one large-seeded kabuli Nandyal Gram 119 (NBeG 119) released for the southern zone comprising Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, are cutting across chickpea growing regions of Andhra Pradesh. Nandyal Sanaga 1, released in 2012, is a bold-seeded desi variety tolerant to drought and heat; Dheera released during 2015 is also a desi variety and the first of its kind in India, suitable for mechanical harvesting. Nandyal Gram 49 released during 2016 is a highyielding desi variety with attractive seeds; whereas Nandyal Gram 119 is early bold-seeded kabuli variety released during 2015. These varieties have clearly demonstrated their advantage (10%-15 % increase over popular varieties of the tract) in farmers’ holdings in large-scale demonstrations and are being preferred by farmers of not only Andhra Pradesh, but also Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Maharastra. Efforts are underway to promote large-scale adoption of these varieties to maximize long term productivity of chickpeas in rainfed vertisols