MITIGATION OF SALT STRESS THROUGH KAZI COMPOST IN CHICKPEA

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted in semi-controlled condition during the period from 11th December 2019 to 22nd March 2020 at the Department of Agronomy, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Dinajpur to assess the effect of Kazi compost (KC) to mitigate salinity stress in chickpea var. BARI Chola-11. Three levels of Kazi compost viz., i) KC0 = No compost (Control), ii) KC1 = 10% compost, and iii) KC2 = 20% compost @ 9 kg soil pot-1. Saline solution was prepared by adding semi-refined coarse salt (NaCl) in tap water to make three levels of salt stress viz., i) S0 = No salt (Control), ii) S1 = 50 mM NaCl, and iii) S2 = 100 mM NaCl salinity. Plants were irrigated with the salt solution from seedling stage to maturity, and the control plants were irrigated with tap water. Data on different parameters like the plant height, leaf, stem, root dry matter and yield contributing parameters were recorded at harvest. Experimental results revealed that salinity decreased plant height, dry weight of leaf, stem and root as well as yield of chickpea plant-1. Application of Kazi compost had positive effects to mitigate salinity stress on all those studied parameters. Nevertheless, Kazi compost at the rate of 10% showed better result to mitigate salinity stress at 50mM NaCl, and 20% showed best result to mitigate salinity stress at 100 mM NaCl. From the study, it was proposed that under salt stress, the application of Kazi compost can be a suitable practice for more production of chickpea in saline affected soil Bangladesh. Present study provided basic information related to the plant growth, yield attributes and yield which suggest chickpea as a salt sensitive leguminous crop, and can be grown saline affected regions with application of 20% compost.