Muhammad Sarwar

pp. 287 - 291

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), is an important pulse food. During storage this commodity is severely attacked by
bean beetle Callosobruchus maculatus (Fabricius) resulting losses in quantity and nutritional quality. Research studies on
relative resistance of 12 chickpea genotypes to the attack of C. maculatus during storage were carried out. The genotypes
most tolerant to bruchids comprised CH-52/02 and B-8/03, whereas, the most susceptible reactions were apparent in
CH-86/02 and CC-117/00. The moderate pest incidence was observed in CH-28/02, CH-4/02, CH-32/02, CH-31/02, CH-9/02,
CM-772/03, B-8/02 and CM-628/03 genotypes. The tolerant genotypes exhibited hard and wrinkled seed coat, dark brown
colour and small size grain. These characteristics demonstrated a significant harmful effect to pest appearance and grain
damage. The vulnerable genotypes had soft and smooth seed coat, white seed colour and bigger grain size that caused
vulnerability to C. maculatus. Based on the present investigation, chickpea genotypes CH-52/02 and B-8/03 deserve special
consideration and may be recommended for relatively longer storage to achieve the goal of long term and sustainable pest
management strategies.