ABSTRACT
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second most important crop after beans, commonly known as gram or Bengal gram is a versatile crop among the grain legumes with a total production of 11.6 (Mt) from 13.2m ha. However, it ranks fifth in the productivity after Fababean, pea, lupin, and lentil and ranks first among the pulses both in acreage and production. India accounts for 70.7% of the world Chickpea production followed by Australia (4.4%), Pakistan (4.3%), Turkey (4.2%), Myanmar (4.0%), Ethiopia (2.8%), Iran (2.5%), USA (0.84%), Canada (0.78%), and Maxico (0.62%) (FAO, 2011). Chickpea is used as an important source of protein in human nutrition and cattle feed. Chickpea is considered to have medicinal effects and it is used for blood purification. Chickpea contains 21% protein, 61.5% carbohydrate, 4.5% fat. Its seed is also rich in protein, starch, fiber, calcium, iron and niacin, malic and oxalic acid, which makes it one of the best nutritionally balanced pulses for human consumption (Jukanti et al., 2012). However, like any other pulses, the chickpea seed also contains antinutrional factors, which can be reduced or eliminated by cooking. Chickea enrich the soil fertility by fixing atmospheric nitrogen 141 kg/ha (Rupela, 1987) in the root nodules and improves the
soil structure (Asthana and Chaturvedi, 1999). It is also to improve soil fertility by biological nitrogen fixation which helps reduce the input cost for the existing crop and. Chickpea usually receives few inputs other than labor, insecticides and seed. Chickpea is a crop of both tropical and temperate regions. The two distinct forms of cultivated chickpeas are Desi (small seeds, angular ram’s head shape, and colored with high percentage of fiber) and Kabuli (large-seeds, irregular rounded, owl’s-head shape, and beige colored seeds with low percentage of fiber) types. Kabuli type is grown in temperate regions while the Desi type chickpea grown in the semi-arid tropics. Low yield of chickpea attributed to its susceptibility to several fungal, bacterial and viral diseases. In general, estimates of yield losses by individual insects and diseases range from 5 to 10% in temperate regions and 50 to 100% in tropical regions (Van Emden et al., 1988).
