VARIABILITY OF SOME PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERS IN DESI AND KABULI CHICKPEA TYPES

A collection of 50 chickpea accessions (26 kabuli and 24 desi types) w as evaluated for 2 years for eight physico-chemical seed characters: 1 00-seed weight, hydration capacity, hydration index, coat thickness an d contents of protein, oil, acid detergent fibre (ADF) and starch. Sig nificant differences were found between desi and kabuli types for the majority of the characters. The variance component due to the genotype x year interaction was important for the hydration index, starch and protein content, showing the importance of the year effect on genotypi c expression of these characters. One kabuli accession and five desi a ccessions with high and stable protein content were selected. There wa s no overlap between the variation limits of desi and kabuli for coat thickness and ADF content. There were high positive and significant co rrelations between seed weight and oil content for both types of chick pea.