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fodders. The farmers used this practice widely this season. This helps to
reduce the quantum of inoculum in the fields.
3. Crop rotation is practiced in area's where feasible so that infected fields are
not brought under chickpea.
4. Mix-cropping with wheat, barley, rape and mustard etc., is also practiced.
Ascochyta Blight Research in Pakistan
The disease was present in the North West Frontier Province decades earlier
than the official report of its occurrence (Sandhu 1972). In 1926-27 heavy losses
were reported in the Attock district (Singh 1927).
Pathogenicity tests with Acochyta rabiei indicated that distinct physiological
races of the pathogen do not exist in Pakistan. However, different isolates exhibit
some cultural and morphological differences (Arif and Jabbar 1965).
Host resistance has received major attention as a control measure. At the
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, CS 30, V-i 73 and V-132 were found to be
tolerant to blight. The resistance of V-132 broke down at the flowering stage
while CS 30 and V-133 were poor in grain yield compared with C 727. To make
use of tolerance of these lines, their seed was mixed with other high-yielding
cultivars having similar seed characters, in a 50:50 ratio. It was expected that
during blight-free years the loss in grain yield would be compensated by the high
yielding component, while during blight years at least 50% of crop could be
saved. AUG 480 (a mixture if CS 30 and AUG 426) withstood blight in Piplan,
Rawalpindi and Faisalabad during 1978-79. To date, screening for blight at the
University of Agriculture has shown that strains 626, 6190, 6212, KT-59/3, KT­
60/3 and KT-63/3 are tolerant to chickpea blight (Aslam et al. 1980).
At the Nuclear Institute for Agriculture arid Biology, Faisalabad, an induced
mutation breeding program was initiated during 1978-79 to induce resistance
against ascochyta blight in chickpea. Segregating material consisting of 20,000
M, single-plant progenies, 208 true breeding advanced mutant lines in M 5 generation
and 23 pure lines/cultivars was screened at Faisalabad undee artificial,
and at Attock under natural epiphytutic conditions. Two mutant lines, CM 68
and CM 72, showed resistant reaction at both locations (Ahsanul Haq and
Shakoor 1980).
The germplasm obtained from iCRISAT and ICARDA plus local collections
have been screened under artificially created heavy pressure of inoculum during
the 1979-80 and 1980-81 seasons at the National Agricultural Research Centre
(NARC), Islamabad, Agricultural Research Institute (ARI), Peshawar (Tarnab)
and the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Thirty-seven lines (kabuli
and desi) have been identified as resistant on a 1-9 scale: ICC 76, 607, 641, 1121,
1467,1468,1591,7513,7514,7520,1772, ILC 72, 183, 191,195,201,202,484,