Fast tracking deployment of chickpea heat tolerance to develop chickpea varieties

Chickpea is currently the largest pulse crop in Australia in terms of production and cultivated area, positioning Australia as a global leader in chickpea exports. However, there are challenges to overcome for future growth: A lack of adaption to high temperatures in various cropping regions and limited genetic diversity pose constraints that demand attention. Rising temperatures and heatwaves pose significant threats to grain crops, including chickpea, affecting yield and quality improvements. Particularly during the reproductive phase in spring, chickpea, a cool-season legume, is vulnerable to heat stress. To address these challenges, a four-year investment aims to develop field-based, high-throughput phenotyping tools for breeders to select heat-tolerant genotypes, identify genomic regions associated with improved heat tolerance, and explore mechanisms to enhance chickpea's heat tolerance. Through breeder adoption, this investment will facilitate the development of chickpea varieties with improved heat tolerance, yield stability, and quality attributes.