Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, D: Agriculture and Veterinary, Volume 23 Issue 4

Multi-Criteria Selection in Gram ( Cicerarietinum L.) Germplasm Roshan Bind α & Shri Niwas Singh σ I. I ntroduction hickpea ( Cicerarietinum L., 2n=2x=16) globally ranks third among the pulse crops and accounts for production of 10.1 million tons annually. This ranking places chickpea behind beans (21.5 billion tons) and peas (10.4 million tons). These three pulses (beans, peas, and chickpeas) account for about 70% of global pulse production with chickpea accounting for approximately 17% of the total annual production. Production of chickpea in terms of harvested area from 1961 to 2013 ranged from a low of 8.9 million hectares in 1981 to a high of 13.5 million hectares in 2013. These global acreage and production figures gave a productivity of 748 kg/ha. Chickpea is produced in over 50 countries with India being the largest producer. Other chickpea producing major countries after India are Pakistan, Turkey, Australia, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco and Syria. The top chickpea producing states in India in descending order have been Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. Chickpea is divided into two distinct types. The most prominent type is referred to as "Desi" and is characterized by relatively small seeds that range from light tan to black and with many variations including various markings of anthocyanin pigmentation. The relatively small seeds have rather thick seed coats and yellow cotyledons. The second type is “Kabuli” with bold and big seeds that are relatively white. It is important to study the traits of chickpeas based on which suitable plant types could be selected for higher yields and other improvements. The present investigation was under- taken with the twin objectives of designing an objective way of selection and advocating precise varietal recommender system in chickpeas. This system is an effort to materialize the idea of crop ideotype of chickpea. Ideotype concept was given by Donald 1968. II. M aterials and M ethods A field experiment was conducted during Rabi season 2021-2022 with twelve germplasm lines of chickpea namely CSG 515, E-100YM, GNG 1581, ICC 1009, ICC 15850, ICC 16015, ICC 3535, IPC 94-94, KWR 108, P- 3719, PUSA 362, and RADHA that were procured from IIPR Kanpur, U. P., India for growing in BRDPG College, Deoria. These genotypes w ere grown in three replications in a randomized block design. Standard package of practices was adopted to raise a good crop. These lines were evaluated on 12 parameters viz., days to 50% flowering(D 50% F), days to 50% podding (D 50% P), plant height(PH (CM)), primary branches/plant (PBPP), secondary branches /plant (SBPP), days to maturity (D 2 M), number of pods/plant (NPPP), number of seeds/plant (NSPP), biological yield/plant (BYPP), seed yield/plant (SYPP), harvest index (HI%) and the hundred seed weight (100 SEED WT). Observations were recorded on five randomly selected plants and tagged to record the observation from each replication in each row on twelve parameters. Means of three replications were calculated. These average data were subjected to normalized cumulative ranks analysis as used by Singh 2017, Singh et al., 2018, Yadav et al., 2020 and Kumar 2021. The results of the NCR analysis are being given in five tables to comprehend the NCR analysis step-by- step, although a single table (Table 5)is enough to present the results of such experiments as given in many theses of research students and many papers of this college for the sake of precision and paper economy. C Author α σ: Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, B. R. D. P. G. College Deoria U. P. e-mail: singhshriniwas769@gmail.com Global Journal of Science Frontier Research ( D ) XXIII Issue IV Version I Year 2023 1 © 2023 Global Journals Abstract- An experiment involving 12 genotypes of Gram ( Cicer arietinum L) was carried out at B. R. D. P. G. college farm to select varieties close to ideal plant types through a multi-criteria selection. These genotypes were grown in three replications under standard package of practices to raise a good crop. These genotypes were evaluated on 12 characters namely, plant height, days to 50% flowering, primary branches/plant, secondary branches/plant, days to maturity, number of pods/plant, number of seeds/plant, biological yield/plant, seed yield/plant and the harvest index. The normalized cumulative rank analysis was used to find out a preference order of these genotypes. The preference order is PUSA 362, P-3719, CSG-151, E-100YM, ICCI6015, GNG1581, RADHA, IPC 94-94, ICC15850, ICC 3535, ICC1009 and KWR 108. The top five genotypes from these could be recommended to farmers for cultivation in this region. A single table is enough to present the results of such experiments. The top two varieties were compared with ideal plant type and the best one (PUSA 362) could be further improved by crossing it with CSG515, IPC 94-94, ICC3535 and KWR 108. Keywords: ideotype, chickpea, cicer, normalized cumulative ranks, selection.