Abstract
Twenty chickpea genotypes were grown under rainout shelter to investigate the influence of water stress treatments imposed at varied growth stages; T1; Control, T2; One pre-sowing irrigation, T3; withholding irrigation at flower-initiation, T4; withholding irrigation at pod-initiation stage. The plant height, branches, dry weight of stem, leaves and root plant-1, leaf area, leaf area index were recorded at 120 days after sowing (DAS) which showed significant variation with water stress at varied growth stages. The maximum reduction in height and branches was observed when irrigation was restricted at T2 stage. Restricted irrigation decreased the biomass of stem, leaves and roots leading to reduced leaf area and leaf area index as well. The yield traits viz. 100 seed weight, total number of pods, percentage filled pods were reduced significantly under stress. The grain yield under restricted conditions was reduced by 40.50 to 55.91% over irrigated control in T4 to T2, respectively. Among the tested genotypes, GL28151, RSG963, PDG3 maintained higher growth, yield and yield traits showing their tolerance to water stress, while GL22044, RSG1861 and RVSSG4 were adversely affected most in growth traits and yield as well. Key words: Water stress, chickpea, growth traits, yield.
Highlights
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the fourth largest grain legume crop in the world, with a total production of 10.9 million tons from an area of 12.0 million ha and a productivity of 0.91 t ha-1
The major characters affecting crop grain yield are number of pods and seeds per plant which reduce under drought stress (Davies et al, 2000)
The results showed that the effect of water stress treatments, genotypes and the interactions of genotypes
Summary
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the fourth largest grain legume crop in the world, with a total production of 10.9 million tons from an area of 12.0 million ha and a productivity of 0.91 t ha-1. 90% of chickpea in the world is grown under rainfed conditions where drought is one the major constraints, limiting its production. Drought affects various morphological and physiological processes, resulting in reduced growth, development and economic yield of crop. Water stress has prominent effect on leaf number, total leaf area and secondary branches causing invariable reduction under rainfed conditions (Basu et al., 2007). The major characters affecting crop grain yield are number of pods and seeds per plant which reduce under drought stress (Davies et al, 2000).
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