TIME OF NITROGEN APPLICATION IN CHICKPEA CULTIVARS FOR MAXIMUM YIELD

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the research field of Department of Agronomy, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period from November, 2011 to March, 2012 to find out the effect of the time of application of nitrogen fertilizer to chickpea crops for increased seed yield. The treatment were designed with two factors i. Cultivars; V 1 = BARI Chola-5, V 2 = BARI Chola-6, V = BINA Chola-6 and ii. Nitrogen application; N 0 = Control, N 1 3 = Basal application of 20 kg N ha = Basal application of 40 kg N ha -1 , N 3 =Basal application of 20 kg N ha and additional 20 kg N ha -1 at branch initiation stage, N 4 -1 =Basal application of 20 kg N ha and additional 20 kg N ha -1 at flower initiation stage and N =Basal application of 20 kg N ha -1 and additional 20 kg N ha -1 5 at pod initiation stage. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Results revealed that cultivars had significant effect on yield attributes and yield of chickpea. BARI Chola6

gave maximum pods plant -1 (28.63), 1000-seed weight (117.6 g), harvest index (43.97%) as well as seed yield (1.73 t ha -1 ). BARI Chola-6 gave 29.11% higher seed yield than BINA Chola-6 which showed lowest grain yield (1.34 t ha ). In case of nitrogen application, significant variations were observed in yield attributes and yield of chickpea. N 3 gave higher pods plant -1 (39.23), 1000-seed weight (123.1 g), harvest index (46.65%) as well as seed yield (2.08 t ha -1 ). N 3 -1 had 84.07% higher yield than N

(1.13 t ha -1 ) which was minimum yield. Combination effect of cultivars and nitrogen management that yield attributes and yield of chickpea were significantly higher in

-1 , N -1 2 0V 2 N 3 (BARI Chola-6 + Basal application of 20 kg N ha and additional 20 kg N ha

at branch initiation stage) where maximum pods plant -1 (44.90), seeds pod (2.68), 1000-seed weight (124.8 g), harvest index (50.08%) as well as seed yield (2.43 t ha were recorded. V 2 N 3 had 358.4% increased seed yield over V significantly minimum seed yield (0.53 t ha -1 ). 3 N 0 -1 which gave -1 )