I - --ii

214
Table I
Area, production and yield of chickpea in Jordan, 1970-1980.
Yield (kg/ha) for districts
Area Production Yield Irbid Amman Balka Karak Ma'an
Year (ha) (t) (kg/ha)
1970 1446 678 469 625 470 501 149 -
1971 1658 1122 677 626 808 801 514 339
1972 2823 2597 920 714 1261 701 611 530
1973 3965 2579 650 442 821 152 190 -
1974 5662 3792 670 698 683 504 681 383
1975 3596 1499 417 332 441 403 540 297
1976 1892 778 411 471 43.3 500 153 273
1977 3216 1545 480 471 490 302 610 273
1978 2339 1309 560 575 631 153 550 283
1979 1766 733 415 329 508 121 353 229
1980 2230 1185 531
Source: Department of Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, HKJ.
collaboration with the Faculty of Agriculture/University of Jordan, the Ministry
of Agriculture, and ICARDA. The sites chosen were Marrow in the north,
Mshaqar in the center, and Rabba in the south. At each location, 0.5 ha of the
line ILC 482, which is resistant to ascochyta blight were planted in early January,
and another 0.5 ha were planted to the local Jordanian in March, adjacent to
the winter planted plots. In another small demonstration, the resistant lines ILC
482, ILC 72, and ILC 484 along with the local Jordanian were planted in
November in Jubeiha and Marrow. The purpose was to observe the disease and to
increase the seed of the resistant lines.
Our observations during 10-15 March indicated that Ascochyta incidence on
the early-planted resistant variety was very severe, and almost every plant carried
the symptoms. However, one month later, an excellent recovery was observed,
but each plant had only one or two branches. Samples of the infected
plants were tested, and ascochyta blight was found to be the cause of the disease.
More detailed information will be taken on both winter- and spring-planted
fields.
The importance of winter sowing of chickpeas was demonstrated in recent
years in trials conducted by the Faculty of Agriculture and the Ministry of
Agriculture; the results indicated that early sowing gave almost double the yield
of late-planted chickpeas. However, in all these trials Jordan local was used and
no ascochyta blight incidence was reported.
Farmers may not object to changing from late planting; in fact, this will be
more convenient to their cropping system since all cultural operations can be