Western Australian growers will have two new desi chickpea varieties, Rupali and Sonali, available to them this season.

Sonali is a high yielding and partially Ascochyta blight resistant variety for the short season of the Western Australian wheatbelt and has good adaptation in south-western Queensland and other short season dry regions of eastern Australia.

Rupali, also partially Ascochyta resistant, has more limited adaptation to the Western Australian wheatbelt, but has an extremely attractive, light coloured seed.

The cold tolerant varieties were jointly bred by Dr Tanveer Khan of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia and Dr Heather Clarke of the Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture.

Contact: Dr Tanveer Khan, Tel 08 9368 3602