Characterization of Ethiopian chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) germplasm accessions for phosphorus uptake and use efficiency II. Interrelationships of characters and gains from selection
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Abstract
The efficient use of phosphorus fertilizer in an environmentally friendly and sustainable ways is preferredbecause of cost and ecological concerns. An experiment was conducted with 155 chickpea genotypes in 2009/10at two locations (Ambo and Ginchi) in Ethiopia to study interrelationships, broad-sense heritability and geneticgains from selection for attributes of phosphorus-uptake and use efficiency and other agronomic characters onwhich data were collected. Significant positive correlations were observed between characters of plant tissuephosphorus contents (r = 0.22-0.85), between plant tissue phosphorus contents and phosphorus yields (r = 0.22-0.99),between plant tissue phosphorus yields (r = 0.23-0.89) and parameters of phosphorus-uptake and -use efficiency in anumber of cases. Grain yield and some of its components showed significant positive correlations (r = 0.70-0.99) withphosphorus yield efficiency. Broad-sense heritability values ranged from 60-93% and genetic advance valuesranged from 4-62% in the absence of phosphorus. The corresponding broad-sense heritability and genetic advancevalues in the presence of phosphorus ranged from 59-93% and 4-79%, respectively. Selection among the Ethiopianchickpea gene pool for most of the traits studied would be expected to be effective, indicating the need for theinitiation of a planned breeding program for improving phosphorus uptake and use efficiency.