**2. Challenges in chickpea production**

The world average of chickpea productivity is 982.1 kg/ha (FAOSTAT 2014); however, a simulated study showed that potential productivity of chickpea in rain-fed situations ranged from 1390 to 4590 kg/ha [4]. There is a huge yield gap of 408–3608 kg/ha. A number of biotic and abiotic factors affect chickpea plant growth and, therefore, are responsible for poor productivity.

Chickpea is mostly raised on conserved soil moisture under rain-fed conditions [5]. Therefore, drought stress generally affects the crop at terminal stage [6] and leads to productivity loss of up to 50% [7]. Drought reduces overall biomass, reproductive growth and seed yield and increases flower abortion, pod abscission and number of empty pods [8]. Soil salinity affects productivity by delaying the flowering leading to decrease in reproductive success of chickpea [9]. Since chickpea is a cool season crop, high temperatures adversely affect the development of the plant [10]. Chander [11] reported a decline in yield of chickpea by about 301 kg/ha per 1°C increase in mean seasonal temperature in India [12, 13]. Biotic factors also adversely affect the yield of chickpea crop. *Fusarium* wilt, caused by *Fusarium oxysporum* f.sp. *ciceri*; *Ascochyta* blight, caused by *Ascochyta rabiei* and *Botrytis* grey mould, caused by *Botrytis cinerea* mainly affect the leaves of chickpea, whereas *Pythium ultimum* causes root and seed rot and is common in the areas where the chickpea growing season is cool and humid [14, 15]. A number of other fungi, such as *Alternaria* sp., *Ascochyta pisi*, *Uromyces* sp., *Botrytis* sp., *Phytophthora medicaginis* and so on, cause considerable damage to chickpea crops. Pod borer (*Helicoverpa armigera* Hubner) is the major pest affecting chickpea worldwide [15–17]. Therefore, improvement in yield, nutritional quality and stress tolerance are the major targets of chickpea research and breeding programmes which may be facilitated by detailed understanding of biological processes occurring in tissue-specific and developmental pathways. Moreover, responses to various stresses at molecular level also need to be elucidated in detail.
