Chickpea genetic improvement in Morocco: State of the art, progress and prospects

Chickpea is the second major food legume in Morocco. Compared to spring type, winter type is more adapted to semi-arid rainfed areas, escaping the frequent end-cycle drought and heat stresses. The winter chickpea breeding program of INRA Morocco aims to develop and release varieties that are well adapted to different agro-ecological areas, with high yield potential, resistant to Ascochyta blight and others diseases and pests prevalent in the target areas. Tolerance to drought and ability for mechanized harvesting are also other important objectives. Other traits, related to seed quality, such as large seed size, cooking time and high nutritional value, are also being introduced in the breeding program. Since 1994, seven winter chickpea varieties were released and registered by the breeding program. Those new high yielding varieties are resistant to Aschochyta blight. However, seed increase and marketing are still needed to make these varieties available to farmers. Keywords: chickpea, genetic improvement, varieties, Morocco