Effect of agronomic biofortification of zinc and iron on growth and symbiosis attributes of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) varieties

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during Rabi season of 2021-22 and 2022-23 at instructional farm of college of Agriculture, Jodhpur. Experiment comprised with two varieties of chickpea (‘GNG-2144’ and ‘GNG-2171’) and three levels of iron fortification treatment including control (F0), 20 kg FeSO4 (SA) + 0.5% FeSO4 (F1), 25 kg FeSO4 (SA) + 0.5% FeSO4 (F2) in the main-plot and four-levels of zinc fortification viz. control (Z0), ZSB (SI) + 15 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5% ZnSO4 (Z1), ZSB (SI) + 20 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5% ZnSO4 (Z2) and ZSB (SI) + 25 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5% ZnSO4 (Z3) in sub-plot. The results revealed that variety GNG-2144 recorded higher dry matter accumulation (g/plant) at 30, 60, 90 DAS and at harvest stage and number of nodules/plant at 60 and 90 DAS over variety GNG-2171. Among Iron levels treatment 25 kg FeSO4 (SA) + 0.5% FeSO4 (F2) significantly recorded higher dry matter accumulation and number of nodules as compare to control and at par with the treatment 20 kg FeSO4 (SA) + 0.5% FeSO4 (F1). Moreover, Zinc fortification treatment ZSB (SI) + 25 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5% ZnSO4 (Z3) was found significantly superior over the treatment ZSB (SI) + 15 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5% ZnSO4 (Z1) and at par with ZSB (SI) + 20 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5% ZnSO4 (Z2).