New chickpea resilient
From the December 2008 edition of Agriculture Today.
The striking benefits of a new disease-resistant chickpea variety were on display during a visit by board members from Pulse Breeding Australia to a NSW DPI trial site at Tamworth Agricultural Institute recently.
The new variety - at this stage referred to as CICA 0512 - was in a healthy mid-podding stage but other chickpea varieties planted in plots alongside had been devastated by the fungal disease, ascochyta blight.
NSW DPI breeder, Ted Knights, said the scene at the trial site showed the level of resistance the new variety has to the potentially devastating ascochyta blight.
"CICA 0512 has weathered the conditions this season which have been favourable to ascochyta blight," he said.
"Other varieties in the untreated trial plot have been virtually wiped out."
The trial plots received 197 millimetres of rain since crops were inoculated with the disease and there have been 13 infection cycles.
"Many commercial crops planted earlier than this trial have been hit hard by ascochyta," said Dr Kevin Moore, senior plant pathologist.
"One grower west of Boggabri abandoned his chickpeas due to the disease and a crop near Narrabri has been ploughed under."
NSW DPI is taking a lead role in breeding chickpeas nationally in Pulse Breeding Australia (PBA) - a new joint venture between DPIs in other States, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and the University of Adelaide.
PBA aims to deliver superior pulse varieties for the Australian grains industry.
CICA 0512, first evaluated under field conditions by NSW DPI and Qld DPI and Fisheries in 2003, will be released to farmers when adequate seed is available in 2010.
It is expected to bring significant savings to regional chickpea growers who currently spend up to $10 million each season on fungicide applications to prevent ascochyta blight.
Growers using the ascochyta management package developed by NSW DPI with GRDC funding are keeping the disease under control at a cost - but they are hanging out for this new variety to become available.
Chickpeas grown in NSW go mostly to the Indian subcontinent for human consumption.
They are also a most profitable break crop for cereal production, helping to reduce disease, weeds and nitrogen inputs.
Contact Ted Knights, Tamworth, (02) 6763 1179 or Kevin Moore, Tamworth, (02) 6763 1133.
