Performance of Chickpea Varieties Cicer arietinum LUnder Different Agronomical Methods of Zinc Biofortification

Abstract

newline A field experiment entitled Performance of Chickpea Varieties (Cicer arietinum L.) Under Different Agronomical Methods of Zinc Biofortification was conducted on clay loam soil having low in available nitrogen (274.65 to 277.01 kg ha-1), medium in available phosphorus (18.87 to 20.03 kg ha-1), high in available potassium status (311.63 to 318.47 kg ha-1) and low in zinc (0.53 to 0.57 mg kg-1) with slightly alkaline in reaction at the Instructional Farm, Department of Agronomy, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur during the rabi season 2021-22 and 2022-23 with the objective to evaluate the performance of chickpea varieties to agronomic zinc biofortification methods. The experiment comprised of four chickpea variety (GNG 2144, GNG 1958, RVG 203 and Pratap Chana 1) and zinc biofortification methods (Control, Seed priming with 0.05% ZnSO4, Soil application of 25 kg ZnSO4 ha-1, Foliar application of 0.5 % ZnSO4 at flowering and pod development stage, Seed priming with 0.05% ZnSO4 + Foliar application of 0.5% ZnSO4 and Soil application of 25 kg ZnSO4 ha-1 + Foliar application of 0.5% ZnSO4) thereby involving 24 treatment combination which was replicated four time in split plot design. newlineThe results revealed that among four chickpea varieties grown, variety GNG 1958 recorded the maximum plant height at successive growth stages. While, variety GNG 2144 recorded significantly higher CGR, chlorophyll content, primary and secondary branches as well as effective root nodules and their dry weight thus resulted highest DMA at successive growth stages and at harvest as compared to varieties GNG 1958, RVG 203 and Pratap Chana 1 during both years. These improvements manifested in the production of higher pods plant-1, seeds pods-1, 100 seed weight and seed yield plant-1 with the concomitant increase in productivity in terms of seed and biological yield. The corresponding increases in seed and biological yield were of the order of 8.38, 25.06, 74.71 and 1.67, 20.31, 47.16 per cent over varieties GNG 1958,