POD VOLUME AND POD-FILLING PERCENTAGE AS ADDITIONAL TRAITS FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF CHICKPEA (CICER-ARIETINUM L)

Thirty short- to medium-duration chickpea germplasm accessions from di verse geographic origins and with a wide range of physiological and mo rphological traits were grown in three environments at ICRISAT Asia Ce nter, Patancheru, during 1992/93. Data were recorded on time to flower ing, leaf area, 100-seed mass, pod volume, and pod-filling percentage. Quantitative data on the last two traits were recorded for the first time to examine their relevance to the characterization of germplasm a ccessions and their use as selection criteria in breeding. The accessi ons exhibited considerable variation for the traits. The broad-sense h eritabilities were 0.98 for pod volume and 0.85 for pod-filling percen tage. The two traits showed consistent relationships with other morpho logical characters indicating that the pod volume and pod-filling perc entage traits can be utilized in genotype characterization of chickpea .