Determination and characterization of fungal diseases in chickpea grown in the Gaziantep province and determination of resistance in wild cicer populations

Cultured chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) has an important place in human and animal diet since it contains high protein value. In Southeastern Part of Turkey, Leguminaceous crops comes after cereals for cultivated area (22.36% of total) and production 13.23% of total) thus they have an important economical income. In Gazaintep. cultivated area and total production for legumes were 24.8% and 10.5%, respectively (Annonymous, 1997). There are important fungal diseases of chickpeas causing significant economic losses and among them Fusarium and Ascochyta species are known as the major problems in chickpea. Controlling these pathogens is difficult since they are soil and seed borne. The most effective method is to use resistant varieties and to employ cultural practices. However in order to control these diseases, it is necessary to determine the pathogen at the population level. In this study, determination and characterization of fungal diseases of chickpea cultivated in the Gaziantep province in 2000-2001 growing season were aimed. To do this, field trips were conducted to 9 different towns of the Gaziantep province. In some of the fields, yield losses of %80 were detected and the most common disease was determined as Ascochyta blight followed by Fusarium solanı, Macrophomina sp.. Altemaria sp. and Rhizoctonia solani. Ascochyta rabei was identified as the Ascochyta blight agent, and a total of 15 isolates were collected. Five of these wereused in pathology experiments to inoculate 7 different chickpea varieties obtained from different Research Institutes. The results of the pathology experiments showed that the most of the registered varieties were susceptible to these isolates. The results obtained clearly pointed out that immediate control measures needed to be taken for better crop production and yield in chickpeas. Key Words: Cicer, Ascochyta, isolates, pathology