Effect of herbicides on yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Introduction

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) popularly known as "Gram" or "Bengal gram" is most important and premier pulse crop of India. Chickpea has been well recognized as a valuable source of protein particularly in the developing countries where majority of the population depends on the low-priced food for meeting its dietary requirements. Its magnitude of significance is more among Indians due to their reliance on vegetarian diets besides limited buying capacity of more than 200-250 million (27%) people living below the poverty line. like any other pulses, supplementation of chickpea with cereal based diets is considered one of the possible solutions to the problems associated with protein energy malnutrition (PEM). The daily availability of 14 gm chickpea is source of approximately 2.3% (56 K cal.) energy and 4.7% (2.7 gm) protein to Indian population besides being a major source of calcium and iron (10-12%). Chickpea is the third most important grain legume in the world after dry beans and dry peas at global level. Its cultivation is mainly confined to Asia with 90% of the global area and production. Besides Asia, it is also grown in North and Central America, the Mediterranean region, the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region and Eastern Africa Recently, the crop has expanded in new niches such as Australia and Canada. Among the pulse, the chickpea is a first important Rabi pulse crop of the region. In 2016-2017 estimated area and production of Chickpea in India is 9.90 million ha and 9.12 million tone. The productivity is 969 kg /ha (2016-2017). In 2017-2018 estimated area and production of Chickpea in Maharashtra is 19.88 lakh ha and 18.81 lakh tone. In Maharashtra, highest chickpea crop is grown on 19.29 lakh ha with the highest production of 19.41 lakh tones (2016-2017). The productivity is also highest during 2016-2017 (1006 kg/ha). Percentage of area increased during this year as compared to previous year is 10.81% of India and 2.96% area in Maharashtra respectively. Maharashtra is having 14.69% contribution in the area with 13.74% production share of the nation (average of last ten years). Weeds effect on growth, yield and quality of crop plants and reduce the soil fertility, available soil moisture and nutrients and also compete for space and sunlight with the crop plants. Weeds pose severe competition to chickpea crop under rainfed as well as irrigated conditions. Losses in seed yield due to weeds have been estimated 40-87% (Saxena et al. 1976, Ahlawat et al. 1981, Yadhav et al. 1983, Vaishya et al. 1999) [5,1,7,6] in view of this present investigation was carried out to study performance of herbicides in chickpea.

Materials and Methods

The present field experiment was conducted during Rabi season of 2018-19 at the Experimental Farm of Agronomy at Agriculture Research Station, Badnapur, Jalna (Maharashtra), Vasantrao Naik Marathawada Krishi Vidyapeeth Parbhani. The initial soil sample analysis the experimental plot was clayey in texture, moderate in available nitrogen (180.36 kg ha -1 ), low in available phosphorus (14.36 kg ha -1 ), high in available potassium (460.59 kg ha -1) . The soil was slightly alkaline in reaction (7.96 Sowing was done by dibbling. The gross and net plot size was 3.60 x 6.20 m and 3.0 x 5.8 m respectively. The recommended dose of fertilizer was 25:50:00 kg NPK ha -1 applied as per treatments through Urea and SSP. Other cultural practices were done as per treatments. Statistical analysis of the data was carried out by using standard analysis of variance (Panse and Sukhatme 1967).

Results and Discussion

Effect of herbicides on yield and yield attributes of chickpea

In relation of yield and yield contributing attributes which were significantly influenced by different treatments are presented in table 1. number of pod plant -1 (60), pod yield plant -1 (17.83 g), seed yield per plant (15.67 g), Seed index (23.83 g), seed yield (2055 kg ha -1 ), straw yield (3600 kg ha -1 ) and biological yield (5655 kg ha -1 ) which was found significantly improved with weed free treatment it was followed by the treatment. (T 3 ) pendimethalin 38.7 CS @ 1 kg ha -1 + one hoeing, (T 6 ) Pendimethalin 30 EC + Imaze 2% @ 1 kg ha -1 + one hoeing at 30-35 DAS, (T 1 ) Pendimethalin 30 EC @ 1 kg ha -1 + one hoeing at 25 DAS -30 DAS. Improvements in yield contributing characters and thereby increase in seed yield due to these treatments may be attributed due to significantly lower weed density which created favorable condition for better crop growth and development in crop. Similar results were reported by Rupareliya et al. (2017) [4] and Bhalla et al. (1998) [2] .

Table 1: Effect of herbicides on yield and yield attributing characters of chickpea.

Treatments

Conclusion

The study demonstrated that effective weed management significantly enhances chickpea yield and yield-contributing attributes. The weed-free treatment (T 9 ) resulted in the highest values for key parameters such as pod number, seed yield, and biological yield, followed closely by treatments involving Pendimethalin with one hoeing (T 3 , T 6 , T 1 ). These results suggest that combining chemical weed control with mechanical hoeing creates favorable growth conditions by reducing weed competition, thereby improving crop performance. Effective weed control, particularly with Pendimethalin and hoeing, is essential for maximizing chickpea yield in both rainfed and irrigated conditions.

References

1. Ahlawat IPS, Singh A, Saraf CS. Effects of winter legumes on the nitrogen economy and productivity of succeeding cereals. Experimental Agriculture. 1981;17:57-62.
2. Bhalla CS, Kurchania SP, Paradkar NR. Herbicides weed control in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). World Weeds. 1998;5:121-124.
3. Rupareliya VV, Chovatia PK, Venkariya SJ, Javiya PP. Effects of different pre-and post-emergence herbicides on growth, yield attributes, yield and quality of chickpea. International Journal of Science and Environment. 2017;6(4):2587-2593.
4. Saxena MC, Subramaniyam KK, Yadav DS. Chemical and mechanical control of weeds in gram. Pantnagar Journal of Research. 1976;1:112-116.
5. Vaishya RD, Rai OP, Singh SS. Weed control in chickpea with pre-emergence herbicides in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Indian Journal of Pulses Research. 1999;12(2):197-200.
6. Yadav SK, Singh SP, Bhan VM. Weed control in chickpea. Tropical Pest Management. 1983;29:297-298.