Abstract:
Chilli is grown as a rainfed crop in many parts of Tamil Nadu and India. Drought stress
causes early flowering in chilli plants and many other phenotypic changes that lead to
poor growth and yield. To date, there is no chilli variety or hybrid exclusively developed
for drought tolerance in India. Therefore, a study on climate resilient chilli (Capsicum
annuum L.) hybrid development was carried out in the Department of Vegetable
Science, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,
India. The wild relatives of chilli viz., Capsicum chinense, C. baccatum var. pendulum and
C. eximium are recognized as drought tolerant species used for the development of
inter and intra-specific F1 hybrids with a special emphasis to thrive under high water
deficit regimes along with the production of high yielding and better-quality fruits. In
view of the above considerations, chilli germplasm consisted of C. annuum, and their
related species was chosen to develop F1 hybrids, and screening was carried out at the
laboratory level using PEG and then under pot culture studies. Hybridization was done
among the screened drought tolerant chilli genotypes and wild species. The results
showed that the C. annuum hybrids viz., IC-119233 x Arka Lohit, IC-045986 x Arka Lohit
and IC-119233 x IC-119231 and the inter-specific hybrid IC-119233 x EC-362917 (C.
annuum x C. baccatum) were identified as promising and best-performing hybrids for
drought tolerance.
