Screening a cold tolerant chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) nursery in Canterbury : This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment for the postgraduate Diploma in Agricultural Science at Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is the third most important pulse crop in the semi-arid tropics. Chickpea are not commercially grown in New Zealand, but preliminary work by Hernandez (1986) showed that the plants grow well in Canterbury and yields of kabuli of up to 2.7 t seed/ha were obtained (McKenzie, Andrews and Stokes, 1992). Sowing time largely influences the vegetative and reproductive periods and the economic yield of chickpea. An early-sown crop generally has a tendency to produce excessive vegetative growth and a late-sown crop suffers from reduced growth, resulting in poor pod-setting and low grain production in both cases. Since the crop is sensitive to such climatic factors as temperature and rainfall, particularly during the flowering and pod-filling period any minor aberration in weather during this time may affect the crop adversely.