www.czu.cz ; www.raupp.info

The campaign to make chickpeas more profitable for northern graingrowers is
to continue, with the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)
supporting a range of new research by the New South Wales Department of
Primary Industries (NSWDPI November 2004.

Some of the work, to be led by NSWDPI Tamworth pathologist Kevin Moore
(left), will improve disease management strategies developed in earlier GRDC
supported research by the department and its Queensland counterpart
(QDPI&F).

Other research, to be pursued in the latter stages of the three year
project, is truly "blue sky" - one component looking to boost chickpeas'
natural defence mechanisms to combat disease and another trying for
biological control of disease through amended seed treatment.

According to Dr Moore, the whole rationale of the project is to make growing
chickpeas in the northern region - NSW north of the Macquarie River and
Queensland - more profitable for growers.

"Chickpeas assist cereal production in the northern grains region, as they
help solve declining soil fertility, weed problems and cereal disease," Dr
Moore says.

"Management packages developed under our earlier GRDC supported research
have helped chickpea production expand in the north, but they are incomplete
to some degree and that - as well as the lack of disease resistant
varieties - limits chickpeas acceptance by many growers.

"While the new varieties from the chickpea breeding program are less
susceptible to Ascochyta blight, they will still need management. They are
all susceptible to Botrytis grey mould and Phytophthora root rot continues
to be a major threat.

"This new project will refine existing the Ascochyta packages to match
economic constraints for current varieties and develop strategies for new
ones. It will also develop a Botrytis package and improve fungicide
efficiency."

Dr Moore said while grower experience, and his own team's trials in 2003,
showed skipping one or two fungicide sprays was disastrous with very
susceptible varieties like Jimbour(&), missing a spray with the new,
Ascochyta resistant lines was much less serious.

There were also gains to be made in improving the efficiency and persistence
of fungicides, in the relationship between price, chickpea variety and crop
stage and disease pressure levels," Dr Moore said.

[www.grdc.com.au]

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