Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Variety Evaluation for Yield Performance and Stability Under Dryland and Irrigation Condition in Montana.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a legume crop grown widely in the world and primarily used for human consumption as source of protein. Acreage of cool season pulse crops including chickpea is increasing in Montana mainly replacing summer fallow and predicted to continue growing. But information on yield performance and stability of chickpea varieties under dryland and irrigation is needed to help with decision making. We evaluated four varieties of chickpea in 12 environments. The varieties included in this experiment were CDC Alma, CDC Orion, CDC Frontier and Myles. The first three varieties are kabuli and Myles is desi type chickpea. The experiment was carried out in different research centers of Montana State University in randomized complete block design with four replications. Additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis results showed that environments accounted substantial portion (84 %) of the total sum of square followed by the interaction of environment by varieties and were both very highly significant (P<0.0001). The first two principal components (PC1 and PC2) of the interaction term (environment by variety) accounted more than 82 % of the interaction sum of square and both were very highly significant. Mean grain yield ranged from 0.99 to 3.26 t ha^-1 for the different environments and from 1.93 to 2.07 t ha^-1 for the different varieties. Irrigation increased average chickpea grain yield by 42 % compared to dryland. Based on yield stability index, CDC Orion has better yield performance and stability for wider adoption in Montana followed by CDC Frontier.