Impacts of early maturing chickpea varieties in Myanmar Yezin, Myanmar DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH DAR ABSTRACT: Chickpea is an important legume crop in Myanmar, grown mainly in the central dry zone (CDZ) which receives erratic and low rainfall. Chickpea varieties with early maturity, resistance to Fusarium wilt and tolerance to terminal drought and heat stresses are required for CDZ. Department of Agricultural Research (DAR) of Myanmar has worked closely with ICRISAT for development of chickpea varieties suited to CDZ. Seven early maturing chickpea varieties have been released from ICRISAT-bred materials. Farmers have rapidly adopted these varieties. Currently, 96% of the chickpea area is under 5 of these varieties (43% Yezin 3, 20% Yezin 4, 16% Yezin 6, 16% Yezin 8 and 1% Yezin 11). Adoption of these varieties along with improved crop production practices has given an annual growth rate of 5.6% for chickpea yield during the past 15 years. INTRODUCTION Chickpea is an important legume crop in Myanmar, not only for local consumption but also for export. During 2015-16, chickpea was grown on 372,514 ha producing 581,149 Mt of grains with an average yield of 1560 kg ha-1. About 96% of the chickpea area is in the central dry zone (CDZ) in Sagaing (47%), Mandalay (25%) and Magway (24%) regions. The CDZ is characterized by erratic and low (<750 mm) rainfall. Chickpea is grown in the post-rainy season on residual soil moisture, mostly without irrigation, and often experiences drought and heat stresses during reproductive phase. The chickpea varieties with early maturity, resistance to Fusarium wilt and tolerance to terminal drought and heat stresses are required for CDZ. RESULTS Seven early maturing (85 to 95 days) chickpea varieties, four in kabuli type, Yezin 3 (ICCV 2), Yezin 5 (ICCV 3), Yezin 8 (ICCV 97314) and Yezin 11 (ICCV 01309), and three in desi type, Yezin 4 (ICCV 88202), Yezin 6 (ICCV 92944), and Yezin 12 (ICCV 07118), have been released in Myanmar from ICRISAT-bred materials. Farmers have rapidly adopted these varieties and 96% of the chickpea area is currently under five of these varieties (43% Yezin 3, 20% Yezin 4, 16% Yezin 6, 16% Yezin 8 and 1% Yezin 11). Adoption of these varieties along with improved crop production practices has given an impressive compound annual growth rate of 5.6% for chickpea yield during the past 15 years (2000-01 to 2015-16). (Fig 1) The chickpea production increased 5-fold (117,000 to 581,000 tons) due to 3.3-fold increase in area (164,000 to 373,000 ha) and 2.2-fold increase in yield (712 to 1560 kg ha). (Fig 1) Myanmar has emerged as an important chickpea exporting country from 2001 with an average annual export of 47,500 tons (valued at US$ 24 million). Figure 1. Trends in area, production and yield of chickpea during 2000-01 to 2015-16 MATERIALS AND METHODS Desi and kabuli chickpea varieties with early maturity, resistance to fusarium wilt, drought and heat tolerance, high yield and export quality grains were developed for upland and rice-based ecosystem. DAR and ICRISAT has strong collaboration in chickpea improvement. ICRISAT provided 5047 chickpea germplasm and breeding lines to Myanmar during 1986 to 2015, which were evaluated by DAR scientists. DISCUSSIONS The early maturing varieties were well adapted to the growing conditions of CDZ, gave higher yields and improved yield stability. The impacts of early maturing chickpea varieties were quite impressive. These varieties increased farmers’ income substantially and had lower unit cost of production compared to wheat. Increased seed availability played an important role in rapid adoption of improved chickpea varieties. However, more farmers are still facing relatively shortage of seed of improved chickpea varieties due to increasing area under chickpea cultivation. Formation of farmers’ cooperatives for seed production of improved varieties is important for meeting requirement of farmers for good quality seed of improved varieties. The promising breeding lines were evaluated at 7 Regional Research Farms for 5-6 years. Farmer participatory varietal selection (FPVS) trials were also conducted to identify farmer-preferred varieties Agronomic research was conducted to develop package of practices for these varieties. The adoption of improved varieties was enhanced by knowledge empowerment of farmers (training, interactions, demonstrations, field days, literature, etc) and improving their access to seed. REFERENCES Than, A.M., J.B. Maw, T. Aung, P.M. Gaur, and C.L.L. Gowda. 2007. Development and adoption of improved chickpea varieties in Myanmar. Journal of SAT Agricultural research 5(1). http:// www.icrisat.org./ Journal/ volume 5/Chickpea_Pigeonpea/cp1.pdf Leveraging legumes to combat poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation 1Department of Agricultural Research (DAR), Yezin, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar; 2International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Hyderabad 502 324, India Mar Mar Win1, Kyi Shwe1, Thin Maw Oo1 and Pooran M Gaur2