Chickpea Wild Relatives: Potential Hidden Source for the Development of Climate Resilient Chickpea Varieties

Abstract Chickpea, a cool-season legume is the major source of protein specifically for people in developing countries. In modern chickpea, domestication and subsequent breeding are the major bottlenecks for the reduction of genetic diversity. The reduction in the trait variation, generate the necessity to find the genetic diversity of the wild relatives to develop the climate-resilient crop. Abiotic stresses, namely, drought, heat, cold, and salinity, enhanced by climate change have been significantly affecting the chickpea yield and production. These major barriers affecting the productivity of chickpea are forecasted to be unpredictable stressors due to climate change in years to come. In this context, various studies had been reported to evaluate the potential of wild Cicer species against different abiotic stress. These studies have demonstrated the presence of considerable genetic diversity among Cicer wild species for tolerance against abiotic and biotic stresses. The presence of a rich repository for traits conferring resistance to stresses in wild Cicer species can be exploited through wide hybridization. The resulting transgressive segregations present in the pre-breeding populations can be used for the development of trait-specific stress-tolerant chickpea genotypes. In this chapter, we have reviewed environmental stresses hampered on the yield of chickpea and updated potential hidden resources of resistance to these stressors to improve climate-resilient chickpea varieties.