Abstract
Variety and location specific plant density recommendation is one of the agronomic practices used to increase the production and productivity of chickpea. However, there is a blanket recommendation across locations and varieties of chickpea in Ethiopia. Hence, Effects of blended NPS fertilizer rates and intra-row spacing on some agronomic traits of chickpea varieties were evaluated with the objective to find out the optimum amount of NPS fertilizer and intra-row spacing for chickpea production under midland conditions of Bale. The experiment was conducted using split plot design using chickpea varieties (ACOS Dubie and Habru) as main plots and NPS fertilizer rate and intra-row spacing as sub-plots with three replications. The main effect of variety showed significant effect on the number of days to mature, number of days to flower, plant height, biological and seed yield and hundred seed weight whereas, main effect of intra-row spacing did not show significant difference on all studied agronomic parameters. Similarly, main effect of blended NPS fertilizer rates did not reveal significant difference for the studied parameters. Blended NPS fertilizer rates utilized in the study areas did not show differences in most of studied traits. From this, it can be preliminarily concluded that reasonable intra-row spacing of 10 cm for both varieties of chickpea could be used for the studied areas.
Highlights
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is an ancient crop that belongs to the legume family
The experiment was laid out in split plot with chickpea varieties (ACOS Dubie and Habru) as main plots and NPS fertilizer rate and intra-row spacing as sub-plots with three replications
[10] reported differences among varieties of chickpea in time to physiological maturity; there was no significant difference between intra-row and Blended NPS fertilizer
Summary
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is an ancient crop that belongs to the legume family. It is produced worldwide and it is the world’s third most important food legume next to haricot bean and soybean [6]. Application of inorganic phosphorus fertilizer is a crucial component to reduce yield loss caused by the nutrient. This is because, an adequate amount of Phosphorus nutrition enhances the physiological activities of legume crops, including stimulation of early root formation, growth, nodulation, photosynthesis and flowering [2]. If the population is too low, more growing space was wasted and it lowers yield In line with these facts Kakiuchi and Kobata (2004) found that lower plant density increased the pod number per plant whereas; the higher plant density decreased the parameter. In view of this, this paper explores the effect of blended NPS fertilizer and Intra-row spaceon chickpea production under midland conditions of Bale
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
