Effect of zinc nutrition on growth and yield of Kabuli chickpea varieties

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to study the response of kabuli chickpea varieties to zinc nutrition on sandy loam soils at College Farm, Agricultural College, Mahanandi campus of Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University during rabi, 2024-2025. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with fifteen treatment combinations of five zinc nutrition levels and three kabuli varieties and replicated thrice. The results revealed that, basal application of ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1 + one foliar spray @ 0.2% ZnSO4 at 40 DAS (F4) recorded higher plant height, leaf area index, lesser number of days to 50% flowering, higher seed and stover yield of chickpea. Among varieties, NBeG-810 recorded higher plant height, leaf area index, higher seed and stover yield. However, NBeG-119 recorded lesser number of days to attain 50% flowering.