Diriba Shanko, Guyo Jateni and Abdisa Debela
Soil salinity is abiotic factor which can decrease production and productivity of chickpea landraces in semi-arid areas. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second most important legume crop after dry beans and grows under a wide range of agro-ecological zone which is highly salt sensitive from pulse crops. The aim of this study is to screen out the most tolerant chickpea landraces genotype at soil saline problem and the research was carried out as factorial form with completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) with three replications. The experimental treatments were four salt (NaCl) concentration levels (0 dS/m, 5 ds/m, 10 ds/m and 15 ds/m) and five chickpea landraces (Dadi, Dido, Dida, Dimi and Soya). The results indicated that significant difference was observed in germination percentage, germination rate, radicle length and plumule length parameters under salinity conditions. Dimi, Dido and Dadi were showed that high in germination percentage, radicle length and plumule length, respectively. The ANOVA for treatments, genotypes and their interaction were found to be highly significant at (p<0.05) with regard to all parameters. Chickpea landraces Dimi, Dido and Dadi were salt tolerant during germination stage. However, chickpea landraces soya was salt sensitive during this stage. The rest chickpea landrace was intermediate in its salt tolerance. The current study showed that morphological traits are used as a selection criterion for tolerant in salt affected soil areas.
