Abstract
Drought is a major constraint that limits seed yield in chickpea (Cicerarietinum L.). To identify the most limiting trait under drought conditions is important so that one can breed for varieties with more resilience to drought. The objective of this study was to categorize the drought tolerant and susceptible chickpea genotypes based on the morpho-physiological genotypes so that the most divergent genotypes could be identified to be involved in the crossing programme. The set consisted of forty genotypes which included the lines form Training Population, released varieties and identified donors. A pot experiment was carried out as a randomized complete block design under water stressed conditions and control conditions and observations were recorded on plant height, 100 seed weight, biomass, plant yield, chlorophyll index(CI), membrane stability index (MSI), relative water content (RWC) and protein content in these chickpea genotypes. SAHN grouping was done using the traits relative water content and membrane stability index to cluster these genotypes into homogenous groups. Three distinct clusters could be identified with the most tolerant genotypes grouping into a distinct cluster. The genotypes from this cluster can be used to cross with the lines from the farthest cluster to generate trans-aggressive segregants for these traits so that greater selection gain can be obtained.