Performance of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under varying seed rates and fertility levels
Loading...
Date
2021-11
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2020-21 at N. E. Borlaug Crop Research Centre of G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) to study the ‘Performance of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under varying seed rates and fertility levels’. The soil of the experimental site was silty clay loam in texture being medium in available nitrogen (323.5 kg N/ha), high in available phosphorus (27.1 kg P/ha), medium in available potassium (263.7 kg K/ha) and high in organic carbon (0.86%) contents with neutral in reaction (pH 7.35). The experiment consisting of 12 treatments, having three seed rates (60, 75 and 90 kg/ha) and four fertility levels viz; control, 50, 100 and 125% RDF as set out in randomized block design with three replications. The variety Pant G-5 was sown in rows 30 cm apart on December 3rd, 2020 and harvested on April 12th, 2021. Results revealed that different seed rate significantly affected number of branches/plant, number of compound leaves/plant, mortality, days taken to 50 per cent flowering, yield attributes, grain yield, straw yield, biological yield, N, P, K uptake by crop, protein yield and economics of crop growing. Seed rate had non-significant effect on plant height, plant population, dry matter accumulation, number and dry weight of nodules, days taken to maturity, N, P, K contents in grains and straw and protein content. Seed rate of 90 kg/ha performed better in almost all of the parameters mentioned above. Different fertility levels had significant effect on plant height, number of branches/plant, number of compound leaves/plant, days taken to 50 per cent flowering and maturity, yield attributes, grain yield, straw yield, biological yield, N, P, K uptake by crop, protein yield and economics of crop growing. Fertility level had non-significant effect on plant population, mortality, dry matter accumulation, number and dry weight of nodules, N, P, K content in grain and straw and protein content. The fertility level having 100% RDF performed better than remaining other fertility levels in almost all the parameters with 50% RDF following close behind in some parameters. Gross return and net return were found significantly higher in 90 kg/ha seed rate while only gross return was found significantly higher in 100% RDF fertility level. While the B:C ratio was non-significantly affected.