MORPHOPHYSIOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES AND YIELD OF CHICKPEA (Cicer arietinum L.) VARIETIES AS INFLUENCED BY IRRIGATION LEVELS

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Research farm and laboratory of Crop Physiology and Ecology Department, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur during November 2012 to April 2013 to evaluate morphophysiological attributes and yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) varieties influenced by irrigations levels. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. Four irrigation levels Ip (no irrigation i.e. control), I, (30 mm irrigation at preflowering stage), I, (30 mm irrigation one at pod formation stage) and I; (30 mm irrigation at preflowering stage and 30 mm irrigation at pod formation stage) were considered as main plot and three chickpea genotypes (Barichhola-6, Barichhola-7 and Barichhola-9) were assigned to sub plot. Experiment showed that most of the morphophysiological characters such as plant height, number of branches plant”, number of leaves plant’, Moisture Retention Capacity, Relative Leaf Water Content, chlorophyll content, number of total flower plant’', number of effective flower plant’ and distance from first pod to soil surface increased significantly due to application of irrigation. The above parameters were the maximum when the chickpea varieties were treated with I; followed by I, then I, over the control. But proline content increased due to lake of irrigation and Ip produced the maximum proline content. Yield and yield contributing characters such as number of effective pods plant! , number of grains pod", 1000-grain weight (g), grain yield plant’! (g), biological yield plant” (g), grain yield (kg ha’') increased significantly due to application of irrigation. The above parameters were the maximum when the chickpea varieties were treated with I; followed by I, then I, over the control. But stover yield plant’ (g) and harvest index (%) were maximum when the chickpea varieties were treated with I,. Barichhola-9 performed better than Barichhola-6 and Barichhola-7 in respect of plant height, number of branches plant’, number of leaves plant’, MRC, RLWC, chlorophyll content, number of total flowers plant”, number of effective flowers plant’, distance from 1“ pod to soil surface, number of effective pods plant” , 1000-grain weight (g), grain yield plant’ (g), stover yield plant” (g), biological yield plant” (g) and grain yield (kg ha‘). But Barichhola-7 performed better than Barichhola-6 and Barichhola-9 in respect of number of grains pod”, and harvest index (%). The maximum grain yield (1724.00 kg ha’) was found in Barichhola-9 with one irrigation applied at preflowering stage and one at pod formation stage and the minimum grain yield (406.20 kg ha’) was found in Barichhola-6 with no irrigation.