EFFECT OF MOISTURE CONSERVATION PRACTICES, PHOSPHORUS LEVELS AND BACTERIAL INOCULATION ON GROWTH, YIELD AND ECONOMICS OF CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.

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1 Legume Res., 29 (1) : 68-72, 2006 EFFECT OF MOISTURE CONSERVATION PRACTICES, PHOSPHORUS LEVELS AND BACTERIAL INOCULATION ON GROWTH, YIELD AND ECONOMICS OF CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.) L.R. Meena 1, R.K. Singh and R.C. Gautam Division of Agronomy, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi , India ABSTRACT A field experiment was conducted during rabi (winter) season of the years and to study the response of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) to soil moisture conservation, varied levels of phosphorus and bacterial (Pseudomonas striata) inoculation of seed. Among the moisture conservation practices, the field bunding +FYM@ 10t/ha showed beneficial effects on seed yield and protein content of chickpea. Higher values of growth and yield attributing characters were also observed with field bunding +FYM@ 10t/ha as compared to other practices. Maximum economic return of Rs10,927 /ha was obtained with field bunding+ green manuring (dhaincha) (Sesbenia aculeate L.), which also gave higher benefit cost ratio (2.01) against control on pooled data basis. Application of 60 kg P 2 /ha resulted in statistically significant increased growth and yield attributes and seed yield as compared to formal levels. However, more net returns were received at 30 kg P 2 /ha as compared to higher level of phosphorus (60 kg P 2 /ha). Further, the application of phosphorus had positive effect on protein contents in seed and its level was observed higher at 60 kg P 2 /ha (21.67 %). Seed treatment with phosphobacterin (PSB) culture resulted in improvements in growth and yield attributing characters, seed yield, quality and net return per rupee invested when compared with no phosphobacterin inoculation. Chickpea is the most important rabi (winter) season pulse crop cultivated in India covering 7.01 million hectares of land with production of 6.12 million tonnes. It has significant contribution in pulse economy accounting 30.1 % of the total area and 38.5 % of the total production under pulses (Asthana and Mishra, 1999). There has been no substantial rise in its production chiefly on account of soil moisture deficit mostly at critical stages. Efforts have been made to augment the soil moisture retention through adoption of soil moisture conservation techniques by dividing the field in to small beds, by putting bunds, which helps to conserve more rainwater in soil by minimizing runoff water from soil surface during rainy season. Thus it is helpful for conserving more moisture resulting in good crop production. Besides, moisture conservation, other important factor for 1 Division of Agronomy, C.S.W.R.I., Avikanagar, Rajasthan , India. stepping up the yield of chickpea is phosphorus management. But major hurdle with this nutrient is low availability due to its chemical fixation in the soil and low solubility (10-25 %) of applied phosphorus, which is not utilized by the crops in incumbent season (Pandey, 1987). Therefore, there is an urgent need of enhancing the availability of applied as well as native phosphate to crops, by use of phosphate solubilizing bacteria under in situ moisture conservation. Therefore, the work was undertaken to observe the response of different moisture conservation practices, phosphorus levels and bacterial inoculation on productivity of chickpea under rainfed conditions. A field experiment was conducted in dry land area of Division of Agronomy, IARI, New Delhi under rainfed condition during winter seasons of the years and The soil was sandy loam in texture,

2 slightly alkaline (ph 7.4), medium in organic carbon content (0.37 %) and available P (7.88 kg/ha) and rich in available K (258 kg/ha). The treatments comprised of 4 moisture conservation practices {(Control, field bunding, field bunding+ farm yard manure (FYM)@ 10 t/ha and field bunding+ green manuring (Sesbania)}as main plot treatments and 3 levels of phosphorus (0, 30 and 60 kg P 2 /ha) with and without bacterial (Pseudomonas striata) inoculation as sub-plot treatments replicated four times in split plot design. Moisture conservation practices were adopted in rainy season and phosphorus and phosphobacterin were applied to chickpea crop. In Rabi season chickpea cultivar BG-356 obtained from NSC, New Delhi was sown on 27 th and 28 th October in the years and , respectively. The full dose of phosphorus through SSP fertilizer was applied prior to sowing by pora method as per treatment. The seed of chickpea was treated with phosphate solubilizing bacteria (Pseudomonas striata) followed by drying under shade before sowing. Sowing was done with bullock drawn desi (country made) plough in rows at 30 cm distance with seed rate of 80 kg /ha. Two sprays of Endosulfan 35 EC (2 % solution) were applied at pod formation stage at an interval of 15 days to protect the crop from pod borer. The plots were kept free from weeds by manual weeding. The crop was ready for harvesting by the first fortnight of April in both the years. Five plants were taken randomly from each plot for recording observations. Crop was harvested manually and threshed by using a mechanical thresher (Pullman s thresher). The results revealed that growth attributes of chickpea viz.plant height, dry matter accumulation and number of nodules/ plant were found higher in the field bunding + 10 t/ha followed by field bunding +GM (Dhaincha). However, they were not statistically significant in respect to plant height, and Vol. 29, No. 1, number of nodules/plant, except dry matter accumulation. But these were found significantly superior over field bunding and control. This might be due to occurrence of intermittent rainfall resulting in uniform increased growth attributes of the chickpea under both treatments {(field bunding + 10 t/ha and field bunding + GM (dhaincha)} (Table 1). Similar results were observed by Singh et al. (1986). The increase in dry matter accumulation, plant height and number of nodules/plant due to moisture conservation under field bunding + 10 t/ha treatment could be assigned to prolonged period of water availability in those plots as compared to other moisture conservation practices. Cheng and Wang (1987) also recorded similar observations in Nigeria. The yield attributes viz., number of pods/plant and 100-seeds weight were influenced by moisture conservation practices. The higher values were recorded with field bunding + 10 t/ha followed by field bunding + GM. This might be due to beneficial effect of field bunding + FYM or green manure on growth parameters reflecting their effect on yields attributes. Varshney et al. (1998) also reported beneficial effect of FYM or green manure on prolonged period of water availability, which gives favourable effect at later stages of plant growth on pod formation and seed development stages. Application of phosphorus caused significant improvement in various growth characters viz., dry matter accumulation, plant height and number of nodules/plant, which were significantly affected with graded levels of phosphorus on pooled data basis of two years. The total dry matter production increased linearly up to 60 kg P 2 /ha. However, the increase in plant growth from 0 to 30 kg P 2 /ha was considerably more than from 30 to 60 kg P 2 O /ha. Similar response 5 was also noticed by Borgohain and Agarwal

3 70 LEGUME RESEARCH Table 1. Growth and yield attributes of chickpea in various treatments Treatment Plant height (cm) Dry matter/ Nodules/plant Number of 100-seeds weight (g) at harvest plant at harvest (g) at 90 DAS pods/plant Moisture conservation Control Field bunding Field bunding + /ha Field bunding + GM (Dhaincha) C.D. (P=0.05) Phosphorus levels (kg/ha) C.D. (P=0.05) Bacterial inoculation No Phosphobacterin Phosphobacterin C.D. (P=0.05) Table 2. Seed yield, protein content and economic returns of chickpea in various treatments Treatment Seed yield (q/ha) Protein content (%) Cost of Net profit B:C ratio cultivation Pooled mean Pooled mean (Rs./ha) Mean Mean value of value of 2 years 2 years Moisture conservation Control Field bunding Field bunding + /ha Field bunding + GM (Dhaincha) C.D. (P=0.05) Phosphorus levels (kg/ha) C.D. (P=0.05) Bacterial inoculation No Phosphobacterin Phosphobacterin C.D. (P=0.05) N S N S N S - - -

4 Vol. 29, No. 1, (1986) and Shinde and Saraf (1994). The numbers of nodules/plant were enhanced due to application of phosphorus. This is quite logical because phosphorus is very essential for growth and development of nodules (Berea et al., 1976). The seed- inoculation with phosphobacterin (PSB) improved the growth parameters of chickpea viz., dry matter accumulation, plant height, and number of nodules/plant at 90 days after sowing (Table 1) as compared to uninoculated treatment. This might be due to production of growth hormones such as Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) and Gibbberellic Acid (GA 3 ) by phosphobacterin and solubilization of insoluble phosphate, which may favour the growth characters. (Das, 1985 and Chandra and Kumar, 1995). Seed yield of chickpea was significantly affected by different moisture conservation practices in pooled data (Table 2). Field bunding with application of 10 t/ha and field bunding +GM were statistically superior to other moisture conservation practices in respect of seed yield. The lower seed yield was recorded with control (15.79 q/ha) on the basis of pooled mean over two years. The higher increase in seed yield might be due to prolonged period of water availability in those plots, which were provided field bundings and incorporated with FYM or GM (dhaincha) simultaneously. Therefore, there was a positive effect on growth and development at later stages. These findings are in conformity with those of Venkateshwarlu (1983) and Gautam and Kumar (1992). There was significant increase in seed yield with each successive increment of phosphorus application from 0 to 60 kg P 2 / ha. The application of 60 kg P 2 /ha yielded higher seed yield. The seed yield increased significantly due to phosphorus application up to 30 P 2 /ha. This increase in seed yield with increasing doses of phosphorus was due to more numbers of yield attributes i.e. pods number and their weight/plant. The percentage increase in seed yield at 30 and 60 kg P 2 /ha over control were and 40.85, respectively. These results corroborate with the findings of Das (1985). Seed treatment with phosphobacterin (PSB) culture exerted a marked influence on seed yield in pooled data (Table 2). The %, increase in seed yield was recorded which was higher than that of without phosphobacterin inoculation. Higher grain and straw yields in the phosphobacterin treatment might be due to increase in availability of native phosphate in soil. Tiwari et al. (1994) observed that seed inoculation with phosphobacterin improved the plant growth and development of chickpea. It is supportive to our results. The field bunding + 10t /ha treatment resulted in higher protein contents in seed, which was significantly superior to the other treatments. However, it was found at par with field bunding + GM (Dhaincha). The other two treatments i.e. control and field bunding were at par between themselves. Protein content increased significantly up to highest phosphorus level (60 kg P 2 /ha). However, the difference between 30 and 60 kg P 2 / ha was not significant in this respect (Table 2). Bhandari et al. (1982) also reported similar results. Phosphobacterin (PSB) seed inoculation did not influence protein content in chickpea seed. Among the moisture conservation practices, the field bunding + green manure was accounted for maximum net return (Rs 10729/ha) (Table 2). It was nearly followed by the field bunding + 10 t/ha (Rs10600/ha). The slight increase in economic return under field bunding + green manure treated plots compared to field bunding + 10 t/ha may be due to hike in prices of FYM. However, the benefit cost ratio (2.03) was higher with control. The net return increased significantly with increasing

5 72 LEGUME RESEARCH phosphorus levels up 30 kg P 2 /ha. Whereas, the benefit cost ratio was recorded higher in the control plots because of increased cost of fertilizer. Net return was higher in the treatment with phosphosbacterin inoculation (PSB) over without inoculation. However, better benefit-cost ratio was obtained with no seed inoculation. It is concluded that bunding with incorporation of organic manure as 10t/ha along with application of 60 kg P 2 /ha and phosphobacterin inoculation of seeds are optimum to get economic yield from chickpea. REFERENCES Asthana, A.N. and Mishra, J.P. (1999). The Hindu Survey of Indian Agriculture, pp Barea, J.M. et al. (1976). J. Applied Bacteriol., 40: Borgohain, M. and Agarwal, S.K. (1986). Indian J. Agron., 31: Bhandari, P.B.S. et al. (1982). JNKVV Res. J., 16: Cheng, L.Z. and Wang, J.Y. (1987). J. Soil Sci. China, 1: Chandra, R. and Kumar, N. (1995). Legume Res., 18: Das, D. (1985). Ph.D. Thesis, Division of Agronomy, IARI, New Delhi. Gautam, R.C. and Kumar, Rajender (1992). Indian J. Agron., 37: Pandey, S.K. (1987). Ph.D. Thesis, Division of Agronomy, IARI, New Delhi. Shinde, V.S. and Saraf, C.S. (1994). Indian J. Pulses Res., 7: Singh, K. et al. (1986). Ann. Agric. Res., 7: Tiwari et al. (1994). Indian J. Agron., 36: Varshney et al. (1998). In: I st International Agronomy Congress held at New Delhi, India (Nov ), pp Venketeshwarlu, J. (1983). Project Bulletin No. 5. All India Coordinated Research Project for Dry land Agriculture, Hyderabad, India.