The Improvement of TAEK-Sagel Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Mutant Variety in Turkey

This research is aimed to improve chickpea varieties that are well-adapted to chickpea growing areas, resistant to cold, suitable to machinery harvest type, exhibit high yield and high protein content, bigger seed size, resistance to antracnose and other diseases and pests, and improved quality characteristics. This chickpea breeding project was started with ILC 482, Akcin-91 and AK 71114 parental varieties and eight different gamma radiation dose rates between 50-400Gy were used. After following mutation breeding steps, location experiments started for testing yield and quality characteristics in 2004. According to the results of these experiments two outstanding mutant lines were given for registration. One of them was registrated TAEK Sagel in 2006. In this paper, the yield and quality characteristics of 'TAEK-Sagel' mutant chickpea variety are discussed. It was found that this mutant has 186 kg/da average yield with 23% seed protein content. In addition, its cooking time was shorter than the others (37 minutes). (author)