Impact of elevated temperatures on growth and yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

High temperatures due to significant change in cropping systems and global warming are threatening chickpea production in its current area of cultivation. However, there are limited studies elucidating the impact of elevated temperature on development, growth and yield of chickpea. The present study was aimed at understanding the physiological response of chickpea cultivars when grown at elevated temperatures. Three cultivars (BG 256, JG 412 and JG 218) were grown at day/night temperatures of 26/16, 30/18, 34/20 and 38/22°C under green-house conditions. One set was also grown under ambient conditions where crop season average maximum and minimum temperatures were 25.5 and 12.1°C, respectively. Onset of flowering and maturity were hastened progressively as the temperatures increased. The rate of leaf area development and vegetative biomass was significantly higher at 26/16 and 30/18°C compared with ambient, 34/20 and 38/22°C. Increased vegetative growth was not reflected in seed yield which was highest (16gplant−1) in plants grown at ambient temperature and significantly declined at elevated temperatures. The reduction in yield was low (10%) at 26/16°C, moderate (23%) at 30/18°C and very severe at 34/18°C (64%) and 38/22°C (78%). The yield related traits most affected by high temperature were pod number and harvest index. Reduced pod number was mainly on account of reduction in reproductive efficiency (pod to flower ratio) indicating that under high temperatures reproductive development was impaired. Cultivar BG 256 performed relatively better than other two cultivars and significant interaction of cultivars with temperature was observed for most of the traits studied. It is concluded that for heat tolerance in chickpea, breeding efforts needs to be focused on improving the reproductive efficiency.