​Multivariate Analysis for Identification of Heat Tolerant Superior Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Genotypes

Background: Chickpea being a winter season crop, often experiences high temperature during its reproductive phase resulting in yield losses due to the direct effect of it, on different physiological processes. Therefore, identification and development of heat stress tolerant genotypes is an important aspect in chickpea breeding especially in view of the changing climate scenario. Methods: An experiment was conducted during Rabi season 2017-18 at pulses research field, CCS HAU, Hisar, Haryana comprising 60 genotypes in randomized block design with three replications under two environmental conditions namely, normal and late sown to find out heat stress tolerant genotypes. A total of eleven morpho-physiological yield attributes noted down under both normal and late sown conditions and various multivariate statistical methods were used to find out tolerant chickpea genotypes. Result: The present study has led the understanding of many inter-related traits involved in the genetic variation of chickpea seed yield under normal as well as late sown conditions. This would certainly provide guidelines for selection of parents as well as effective selection of promising chickpea genotypes and also have paramount importance in formulating plant model for selection of segregating generations in chickpea breeding programmes for development of high yielding varieties.