Genomics and Physiological Approaches for Root Trait Breeding to Improve Drought Tolerance in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)R KVarshneyauthorL TPazhamalaauthorJKashiwagiauthorP MGaurauthorLKrishnamurthyauthorD AHoisingtonauthorChickpea ranks third among pulses, fifth among grain legumes, and 15th among grain crops of the world. In 2006, the world chickpea cultivation area was 10.7 Mha with over 8 Mha grown in India, Pakistan, and Iran, with a further 1 Mha grown in other countries of Asia, the Middle East, and Canada. Total production was 8.4 Mt, and the average yield was 772 kg/ha (FAOSTAT 2006). Although chickpea is cultivated in about 50 countries, 95% of its area is in the developing countries where South Asia alone covers almost 71% of the world chickpea harvested area. Most of the chickpea harvested is consumed locally and the global trade is about 12% of the total production. The global demand for chickpea is projected to be 11.1 Mt in 2010. Under optimum growing conditions, the yield potential of chickpea is 6 t/ha (Singh 1987), which is much higher than the current global yield average of ~0.8 t/ha (Ahmad et al. 2005).Chickpea2011SpringerBook Section