Chickpea: Role and responses under abiotic and biotic stress - Legumes Under Environmental Stress: Yield, Improvement and Adaptations - page 67

Chapter 4

Chickpea: Role and responses under abiotic
and biotic stress

Saiema Rasool 1 , Arafat Abdel Hamed Abdel Latef 2 and Parvaiz Ahmad 3
1 Forest Biotech Laboratory, Department of Forest Management, Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt
3 Department of Botany, S.P. College, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

4.1 Introduction

origin) (Bampidisa & Christodoulou, 2011). Desi seeds
are brown, black or green in colour and are cultivated as
a legume crop. Kabuli seeds are white to cream coloured
and are used for cooking purposes for humans (Iliadis,
2001). The seed weight generally ranges from 0.1 to
0.3 g for desi and 0.2 to 0.6 g for kabuli (Frimpong et al.,
2009). The desi type accounts for about 80-85% of total
chickpea production, and is grown mostly in Asia and
Africa (Jukanti et al., 2012), while the kabuli types are
largely grown in West Asia, North Africa, North America
and Europe.
Plants, including chickpea, often experience external
environmental stress (abiotic and biotic stress) that ham-
pers their growth and development (Ahmad et al., 2010,
2011, 2012a,b, 2014a,b). Crop yield is also decreased
enormously due to these stresses. However, plants are
equipped with some mechanisms that can enhance their
tolerance to these stresses (Ahmad et al., 2010, 2011,
2012a,b, 2014a,b). This chapter will throw light on
the responses of chickpea to biotic and abiotic stress.
Biotechnological approaches to enhance tolerance to
these stresses in chickpea are also discussed.

Chickpea is a cool season legume crop grown world-
wide as a food crop. The seed is the main edible part of
the plant. It is also called garbanzo gram or Bengal
gram. It ranks third (FAO, 2008) among the food
legumes after beans and pea. More than 50 countries
are reported to grow chickpea; 22 cultivate more than
20,000 ha, and 19 cultivate 10,000 to 20,000 ha. Major
chickpea-producing countries are: India (65% of annual
production), Pakistan (10%), Turkey (7%), Iran (3%),
Myanmar (2%), Mexico (1.5%) and Australia (1.5%)
(FAO, 2008).
Chickpea is a cheap and important source of protein
for those people who cannot afford animal protein or
who are largely vegetarian. Furthermore, chickpea is
also a good source of minerals (calcium, phosphorus,
magnesium, zinc and iron), unsaturated fatty acids,
fibre and β-carotene). Chickpea also plays an impor-
tant role in maintaining soil fertility by fixing nitrogen
at rates of up to 140 kg/ha/year (Flowers et al., 2010).
Therefore, this crop requires relatively low inputs of
nitrogen as it derives 70% of its N through symbiotic
N 2 fixation and benefits other cereal crops as
well (Siddique et al., 2005). Chickpea contributes a
significant amount of residual nitrogen to the soil and
adds organic matter thereby improving soil health and
fertility.
On the basis of seed colour and geographical distribu-
tion, chickpea is grouped into two types: desi (Indian
origin) and kabuli (Mediterranean and Middle Eastern

4.2 Origin and occurrence

Chickpea is one of the oldest legume crops and is con-
sumed widely across the world. Vavilov (1926) was the
first to recognize the Near Eastern, Central Asian, Indian
and Mediterranean regions as the probable centres of
origin for chickpea. The crop most probably originated