Growth and yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) as influenced by irrigation scheduling and zinc application

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2015-16 at Agriculture Farm, Institute of Agriculture, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal on lateritic soil condition to study the growth and yield of chickpea(Cicer arietinum L.) as influenced by irrigation scheduling and zinc application. The experiment was conducted at split plot design having 5 main plot treatments (I1: irrigation at ­­pre flowering, I2: irrigation at branching + pod development, I3: irrigation at branching + pre flowering, I4: irrigation at branching + pre flowering + pod development, I5: irrigation at 0.8 bar soil moisture tension) and 3 sub plot treatments viz. Zn0: control, Zn1: zinc sulphate @ 0.25%, Zn2: zinc sulphate @ 0.5%. The results of the experiment revealed that treatment I4 (i.e. irrigation at branching + pre flowering + pod development) and Zn2 (0.5% zinc sulphate) recorded highest plant height (43.28 cm), no of branches plant-1 (5.85), dry matter accumulation (231.33 g m-2), leaf area index (1.24), and seed yield (973 kg ha-1), among all the treatments. Interaction effect of I­4 irrigation scheduling and zinc sulphate @ 0.5% showed significantly crop growth rate, seed yield and stalk yield.