Characterization of chickpea cultivars (Cicer arietinum L.) in Cuba.

Abstract

The chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) constitute a legume widely appreciated by the Cuban population. In the last ten years efforts have been made to introduce it in agricultural production by adapted cultivars according to the condition of Cuban soil and climate; obtaining good results. Nevertheless, the actual genetic bases its not very bread and it is necessary to continue evaluating new varieties as to answer to biotic and abiotic limitation of the crop. A trial has been conducted to evaluate the behavior of 19 varieties and lines under the Cuban conditions. Nine variables have been described which allow, from the agronomic point of view, to characterize the varieties. The variables studied were: plant height, number of primary branches, pods per plant, 100 seeds’ weight, seed yield per plant, seed yield per area, percentage of Heliothis virescens incidence, percentage of seed protein and number of empty pods per plant. An Principal Components Analysis has been made using a standardize matrix. The three first components permitted to describe a 64.3% of total variation and the variables which more contributed to the description were: seed yield per area, seed yield per plant and the percentage of Heliothis incidence. The varieties of higher yield were distributed in two groups. One group characterized by a lower protein content under 20% represented by Nacional- 5HA cultivar (2190 kg/ha) and the other group with higher protein content over 20% represented by Nacional-29 cultivar (2357.14 kg/ha).