Chickpea is an internationally important pulse crop the profitability of which is consistently negatively affected by Ascochyta blight (Didymella rabiei) epidemics and the pathogen's ability to evolve enhanced aggressiveness. In order to manage the global threat posed by the disease, ICARDA, one of the international Agricultural Research centres working on chickpea germplasm development (Ascochyta blight resistance), is leading this project to bring together experts from Australia, Canada, Spain, Turkey, India, Tunisia, Ethiopia to form the first international Ascochyta blight consortium. This consortium aims to generate outputs (knowledge, products and tools) and standardize research methodologies that will be of benefit to the Australian chickpea industry.

Anticipated outputs of the project are a new differential set of chickpea lines with known markers associated with each resistant gene. and associated Ascochyta blight pathotype structure with the corresponding identified (A)virulence genes. Identification of the (A)virulence genes and a global pathotype structure will determine which resistance sources can effectively be employed in specific chickpea production areas.

By end of the project, Australian chickpea breeders and pre-breeders will be able to:

1. access novel Ascochyta blight resistant genes available in the chickpea germplasms;

2. understand the value of each Ascochyta resistance gene(s); and

3. generate future varieties with improved durable Ascochyta blight resistance.