Funded by CASDAR and supported by Terre Inovia, this project brought together several partners and players in the sector (FNAMS, GEVES, Chambre d’Agriculture Bretagne et Normandie, LUBEM, Qualisol, Arterris, Epis de Gascogne, Jouffray Drillaud, EPLEFPA, Soufflet, Terrena Innovation, Top Semences). Involved in the 3 main axes, GEVES strongly contributed to the success of this project.

Our work focused on the validation of the method for detecting Ascochyta rabiei on chickpea on MA and PDA media with the development of a pathogenicity test. To do this, a collection of 20 Ascochyta rabiei strains and 20 non-target strains were characterized, an evaluation of performance criteria was carried out as well as the development of pathogenicity test. This method is currently being submitted for validation within ISTA.

At the same time, a great effort was carried out to develop the chickpea resistance test to Ascochyta rabiei and to study the distribution of races of this pathogen in France. Initially, the development of the pathosystem required mastery of the controlled conditions, the contamination method and the definition of a rating scale before selecting the reference strains and the controls representative of the different levels of resistance. This work culminated in a test protocol making it possible to discriminate between chickpea varieties for their resistance to anthracnose and to know the predominant races in the territory.

Finally, as part of the evaluation of alternative treatment for which the providers (mainly physical disinfection process) were sourced in 2020, GEVES provided approximately 50kg of contaminated seeds in the spring and fall of 2021, 2022 and 2023 for carrying out field trials. During the last two years of the project, the pathosystem was developed under controlled conditions in order to supplement data from the field on the evaluation of alternative methods. These data made it possible to highlight the relative effectiveness of certain disinfection processes against Colletotrichum lupini under controlled conditions.