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Threshing is mostly done by bullock treading, but hand flailing is also common.
The threshing with bullock and subsequent manuai winnowing is very labor
intensive and also produces unsatisfactorily cleaned seeds.
Ascochyta Blight
Importance and Occurrence
Chickpea is cultivated as a rainfed or irrigated crop and the average yields are
very low (500 kg/ha). Many factors are responsible for the low yields, which
include excessive vegetative growth aad poor harvest index (Shakoor and Ahsanul
Haq 1980), but the most important limiting factor in exploiting the yield
potential of present-day cultivars is the occurrence of blight disease caused by
the fungus Ascochyta rabiei.It usually occurs in the rainfed areas of Sargodha
and Rawalpindi divisions of Punjab Province and the D.I. Khan division of the
NWFP Province. About 75% of Pakistan's production comes from these areas,
thus damage from disease in these areas severely affects the stablity of chickpea
production.
Yield Loss Estimates and Frequency of Severe Epidemics
Blight appeared in epidemic form in the major chickpea-growing areas of Punjab
(Sargodha and Rawalpindi divn.) and NWFP (D.I. Khan divn.) in 1978-79 and
reduced production by i7%. It apppeared again in severe form during 1979-80 in
the .:nne areas of the two provinces and resulted in 48% reduction in total
chickpea production in the country. It has also been found to be severe in some
areas during 1980-81, but the attacks are localized.
The disease epidemic in the two consecutive years has caused great loss to
farmers (about US$ 90 million). Prior to 1978-79, blight appeared about every
5-8 years in Pakistan.
Control Measures Practiced
The most lasting and economical control mcasure is the growing of resistant
cultivars. Due to the absence of resistant chickpea cultivars, the following control
measures are adopted by the growers to reduce the crop failures (Ahmad et al.
1949):
1. Planting of healthy seeds procured from disease-free localities.
2. The diseased plants when still green but appear sick in the fields in patches
are harvested and fed to animals after chaffing and mixing with other