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Zero hunger and good health could be realized by 2030 through effective conservation, characterization and utilization of germplasm resources1. So far, few chickpea (Cicerarietinum) germplasm accessions have been characterized at the genome sequence level2. Here we present a detailed map of variation in 3,171 cultivated and 195 wild accessions to provide publicly available resources for chickpea genomics research and breeding. We constructed a chickpea pan-genome to describe genomic diversity across cultivated chickpea and its wild progenitor accessions. A divergence tree using genes present in around 80% of individuals in one species allowed us to estimate the divergence of Cicer over the last 21 million years. Our analysis found chromosomal segments and genes that show signatures of selection during domestication, migration and improvement. The chromosomal locations of deleterious mutations responsible for limited genetic diversity and decreased fitness were identified in elite germplasm. We identified superior haplotypes for improvement-related traits in landraces that can be introgressed into elite breeding lines through haplotype-based breeding, and found targets for purging deleterious alleles through genomics-assisted breeding and/or gene editing. Finally, we propose three crop breeding strategies based on genomic prediction to enhance crop productivity for 16 traits while avoiding the erosion of genetic diversity through optimal contribution selection (OCS)-based pre-breeding. The predicted performance for 100-seed weight, an important yield-related trait, increased by up to 23% and 12% with OCS- and haplotype-based genomic approaches, respectively.

Marker‐assisted simultaneous but stepwise backcross breeding (MASS‐BB) was utilized in the present study for pyramiding blast resistance genes, Piz5 and Pi54, from non‐Basmati donors, C101A51 and Tetep, respectively, into PRR78, an elite Basmati restorer line of rice hybrid, Pusa RH10. Marker‐assisted foreground selection coupled with stringent phenotypic selection and background analysis was carried out for hastening the recovery of recurrent parent phenome (RPP) and genome (RPG) in two separate backcross series to produce BC2F1 plants with individual blast resistance gene. The best BC2F1 plant from each backcross series was intercrossed, and the resultant F1 was selfed to pyramid both blast‐resistance genes into PRR78. The plants homozygous for both the genes in the F2 were advanced through pedigree selection to produce superior blast‐resistant F5 lines. Background analysis revealed that the RPG recovery was up to 91.6%. Improved versions of Pusa RH10 developed using the improved PRR78 lines (PRR78+Piz5+Pi54) performed on par with the original Pusa RH10 and showed resistance to blast disease both under artificial screening and at hot spot locations.