EN Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an anual leguminous plant widely cultivated in the semi-arid tropics and in warm temperate zones (Van der Maesen et al. 2007). It is the principal grain legume crop grown in the Mediterranean region, and one of Europe’s main chickpea-producing countries is Spain, where it is cultivated for its dry seeds: 30,726 ha of chickpea were cultivated in 2010 (Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente 2012). Nevertheless, there has been a significant decline in chickpea cultivation in Europe, and Knights et al. (2007) have suggested that one of the possible causes for this is the lack of public investment in research, breeding and technology transfer. Within Spain, chickpea has been cultivated in the province of León (north-west Spain) for many years (Madoz 1847), but chickpea cultivation in this region is also currently in decline. In León, chickpea is traditionally sown in spring and is mainly cultivated as a rain-fed crop; however, water stress often affects both productivity and yield stability. For centuries, many farmers in León have grown chickpeas for personal consumption and for local markets, traditionally using their own seed by selecting and saving part of their harvest, and these practices are still observed by the majority. Consequently, there is great variability in plant material. It is important to conserve and characterize local cultivars in order to avoid loss of genetic variability and to provide a potential source of genetic variation for future breeding programmes. Hence, the aim of this study was to characterise traditional chickpea cultivars in existence in the province of León (Spain) as a conservation measure and also for their subsequent use as the basis for obtaining designation of origin status for the León chickpea
Montenegro et al. (Tue,) studied this question.