Characterization and Assessment of Genetic Diversity for AgroMorphological Traits of Ethiopian Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Landraces

Abstract

Abstract. This experiment was conducted in 2016 at Sirinka and Jari, under rain fed conditions to characterize
and assess genetic diversity among the Ethiopian chickpea landraces. Two hundred two new germplasm
accessions were grown in an alpha lattice design with three replications. Data on 16 traits were collected and
analysed. Differences among the accessions were significant (P<0.01). The genotypes were grouped into five
clusters with different sizes. The genetic distances among the clusters were significant. The highest diversity
indices pooled over characters within zones were recorded for accessions from South West Shewa (H= 2.03 ±
0.05) followed by Gurage (H=0.81 ± 0.08), West Shewa (H=0.73 ± 0.04) and North Gonder (H= 0.72 ± 0.05).
The existence of wider morpho-agronomic diversity among the chickpea collections implies the potential to
improve the crop and the need to conserve the diversity. Future collecting operations of chickpea accessions
should strategically focus on areas with relatively large variation. From a genetic conservation point of view, it
appears that South West Shewa, Gurage, West Shewa and North Gonder could be suitable as in situ
conservation sites.