Effect of sowing windows, moisture conservation practices and drought mitigation strategies on yield and economics of chickpea

Introduction

Chickpea is an important pulse crop cultivated mostly under rainfed conditions, where the productivity is strongly influenced by the weather conditions, availability and distribution of soil moisture during the crop growing period. Long term moisture stress, especially during the flowering and pod formation stages can significantly lower the biomass output, pod formation and grain yield. Unfavourable conditions can lower the farmers' economic returns in addition to yield losses. Time of sowing is one of the key elements influencing the crop's exposure to temperature and moisture conditions at various stages of growth. Chickpea may be subjected to terminal moisture stress and rising temperatures if sowing is delayed, thereby affecting the pod formation and yield. Tillage practices influence soil structure, infiltration, evaporation and rainfall storage within the crop root zone. In a similar way, biochar has the potential to alter the soil physical properties and enhance moisture retention, thereby supporting crop growth during intermittent dry periods. In addition to soil and water management, foliar application of plant growth regulators like salicylic acid, homobrassinolide, and potassium nitrate may help to sustain physiological activity, enhance stress tolerance and boost reproductive development under stress conditions. With increasing climate change and the frequency of occurrence of stress conditions, we must adopt new strategies to address both productivity and profitability of chickpea. Keeping all these in view, this experiment was conducted to know the effect of sowing windows, moisture conservation practices and drought mitigation strategies on yield and economics of chickpea.

Materials and Methods

The field experiment was carried out during rabi of 2024-25, 2025-26 at Agricultural College Farm, Bapatla. The experimental soil was clay in texture with slightly alkaline pH, low levels of nitrogen, medium levels of phosphorus, potassium and organic carbon content. The experiment was laid out in split split plot design and replicated thrice. It consists of three factors: main factor (sowing windows), sub factor (moisture conservation practices) and subsub factor (drought mitigation strategies). Sowing windows include S 1: Second fortnight of November, S 2: First fortnight of December, S 3: Second fortnight of December and S 4: First fortnight of January, moisture conservation practices include M 1: Two shallow ploughings, M 2: Deep ploughing to a depth of 30 cm with MB plough fb two shallow ploughings and M 3: Rice husk biochar incorporation @ 5 t ha -1 with rotavator and drought mitigation strategies include D 1: Salicylic acid @ 50 ppm spray at flowering and pod development stages, D 2: Homobrassinolide @ 0.25 ppm spray at flowering and pod development stages and D 3: 1 % KNO 3 spray at flowering and pod development stages. Chickpea crop was sown with a spacing of 30 cm x 10 cm according to the treatments. Pre emergence herbicide Pendimethalin @ 1L ha -1 was sprayed and later hand weeding was done to remove the weeds. The recommended dose of fertilizers (20 kg Nitrogen, 50 kg Phosphorus) were applied to the field.

Results and Discussion

The data regarding the effect of sowing windows, moisture conservation practices and drought mitigation strategies on seed yield of chickpea is presented in table 1. Among the sowing windows, Significantly higher seed yield was recorded in the chickpea crop which was sown during second fortnight of November (1782, 1892 and 1837 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and in pooled data) and it was statistically on par with yield of chickpea crop which was sown during first fortnight of December (1688, 1809 and 1749 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and in pooled data). The lower yield was recorded in chickpea crop which was sown during first fortnight of January (1397, 1482 and 1440 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and in pooled data) and it was on par with yield obtained when the crop was sown during second fortnight of December (1475, 1546 and 1511 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and in pooled data) during the two years of experimentation and in the pooled data. This might be due to better crop growth and reproductive development with the prevailing weather conditions, which led to better canopy development, sustained photosynthetic activity, efficient translocation towards reproductive sinks which led to good seed development and higher yield. Similar results were reported by Seth et al. (2020) [5] . Moisture conservation practices also had shown significant effect on yield of the crop, where higher seed yield was obtained with deep ploughing to a depth of 30cm with MB plough fb two shallow ploughings (1665, 1771 and 1718 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and in pooled data) and it was comparable with rice husk biochar incorporation @ 5 t ha -1 with rotavator treatment (1610, 1706 and 1658 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and in pooled data). This might be due to better storage of moisture and it was made available to the crop during critical period. This helped plants to retain more reproductive structures and continue assimilate transfer to them. Availability of water during critical stages and their utilization for assimilate production and transfer to the seeds led to better yields. These results were in line with the findings of Basha et al. (2020) [1] . Foliar spray of salicylic acid, homobrassinolide and potassium nitrate did not influence the seed yield of chickpea statistically and they might have performed similarly on chickpea yield. However, numerically higher seed yield was noticed with foliar spray of Homobrassinolide @ 0.25 ppm at flowering and pod development stages (1603, 1704 and 1654 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and in pooled data). Interaction among the sowing windows, moisture conservation practices and drought mitigation strategies was found to be non significant during both the years of study and in pooled data.

Haulm yield was significantly influenced by both sowing windows and moisture conservation practices but not by the drought mitigation strategies during both the years of study and in pooled analysis and the data regarding haulm yield was presented in table 2. Significantly higher haulm yield of chickpea was noticed when the crop was sown during second fortnight of November (2894, 3080 and 2987 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and in pooled data) and it was on par with the haulm yield recorded when sown during first fortnight of December (2747, 3029 and 2888 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and in pooled data). This might be attributed to the longer duration available for vegetative growth under favourable conditions which led to better development of above ground parts like leaves, branches and stem and maintained them till the harvest of the crop. Similar results were reported by Sikdar et al. (2015) [6] . It is also known from the data that higher haulm yield was observed in deep ploughing to a depth of 30cm with MB plough fb two shallow ploughings (2786, 3065 and 2925 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and pooled data) and it was on par with rice husk biochar incorporation @ 5 t ha -1 with rotavator treatment (2708, 2979 and 2844 kg ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and pooled data). It might be due to moisture availability during the crop growing period which allowed better vegetative growth and reduced the premature deterioration which led to more haulm yield. Two shallow ploughings treatment recorded significantly lower haulm yield of chickpea. These results were in line with the findings of Khattak et al. (2018) [3] . The interaction effect of sowing windows, moisture conservation practices and drought mitigation strategies on haulm yield was found to be non significant.

Harvest index

The data regarding the influence of sowing windows, soil moisture conservation practices and drought mitigation strategies was presented in table 3. Harvest index was significantly influenced by the sowing windows of chickpea. The data revealed that harvest index was significantly higher in the crop which was sown during second fortnight of November (0.38, 0.38 and 0.38 during two years and in pooled data) and was comparable with crop sown during first fortnight of December (0.38, 0.37 and 0.38 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and pooled data) during the two years of study and in pooled data. This might be due to the efficient partitioning of assimilates towards the reproductive parts under favourable conditions during flowering, pod development and seed filling. These conditions enhanced the translocation of photosynthates from source tissues to developing seeds, resulting in greater proportion of biomass being converted into economic yield. These results were in accordance with the findings of Sikdar et al. (2015) [6] . The data revealed that the influence of moisture conservation practices and drought mitigation strategies on harvest index of chickpea was found to be non significant. The interaction among sowing windows, moisture conservation practices and drought mitigation strategies did not influence the harvest index of chickpea during both the years of study and in pooled data.

Economics

The data pertaining to cost of cultivation, gross returns, net returns and benefit cost ratio were presented in the table 4 and 5. The higher gross returns (₹ 1,10,462 ha -1 , ₹ 1,24,770 ha -1 and ₹ 1,17,616 ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and in pooled data) net returns ((₹ 60,375 ha -1 , ₹ 74,484 ha -1 and ₹ 67,428 ha -1 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and pooled data) and benefit cost ratio (1.21, 1.48 and 1.35 during 2024-25, 2025-26 and pooled data respectively) were observed in the treatment where the crop was sown with deep ploughing to a depth of 30cm with MB plough fb two shallow ploughings during second fortnight of November with foliar spray of homobrassinolide @ 0.25 ppm at flowering and pod development stages during the two years of study and in pooled data. This might be attributed to better vegetative and reproductive growth which aligned with the suitable weather conditions and moisture which led to higher yields and better returns. These findings were in line with the results reported by Kumar and Angadi (2016) [4] and Dubey et al. (2024) [2] .

Conclusion

Among sowing windows, sowing of chickpea during second fortnight of November recorded significantly higher seed yield, haulm yield and harvest index of chickpea and the lowest was recorded in first fortnight of January sowing. Among the moisture conservation practices, deep ploughing to a depth of 30cm with MB plough fb two shallow ploughings was found to be superior over two shallow ploughings with regard to seed yield and haulm yield of chickpea. Drought mitigation strategies did not influence the yield of chickpea, however, foliar spray of homobrassinolide @ 0.25 ppm at flowering and pod development stages recorded numerically higher seed yield and haulm yield of chickpea. Higher economic returns were observed in the treatment with deep ploughing to a depth of 30cm with MB plough fb two shallow ploughings during second fortnight of November with foliar spray of homobrassinolide @ 0.25 ppm at flowering and pod development stages.

References

1. *MSP for chickpea during 2024-25 and 2025-26 are Rs.56.50 kg -1 and Rs. 58.75 kg -1 respectively References
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