Water productivity and yield of chickpea in response to supplementary irrigation, plant density, and sulfur fertilizing

• Published in: Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 385 - 393
• Main Authors: Fattah, Mohammed A., Hama, Shara J., Ahmad, Rebaz A., Rasul, Roshn M., Qader, Renas Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 01.09.2020; Springer Nature B.V; 한국작물학회
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Chickpeas; Crop yield; Evapotranspiration; Harvesting; Irrigation; Life Sciences; Original Research; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Planting; Planting density; Productivity; Rainfall; Seeds; Soil moisture; Soil profiles; Soil properties; Sulfur; 농학; Elemental sulfur; Chickpea; Plant density; Water productivity; Supplementary irrigation
• ISSN: 1975-9479; 2005-8276
• DOI: 10.1007/s12892-020-00047-4

Chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.) is an essential pulse crop grown and consumed all over the world, which rendered the whole world to produce millions of tons per annum, that led to thinking about improving the productivity of water and land. For this purpose, the current study was carried out to investigate the effect of two plant densities (P 15 and P 30 ) 15 and 30 plants m −2 ; two levels of elemental sulfur (S 0 and S 50 ) 0 and 50 g m −2 ; and supplementary irrigation S I with non-irrigation N I ; on some characteristics chickpea and water productivity ( W P ). The seeds (variety-Flip 82-150) were sown on March 13, 2018. The cumulative depth of actual evapotranspiration (ET a ) from sowing stage to harvesting stage was calculated (437 and 402 mm) for S I and N I , respectively. The cumulative rainfall (152 mm) was contributed to ET a by 37.8% and 34.8% in N I and S I , respectively, Since S I (33 mm) was applied to bring the fraction available water remaining to 0.91 from 0.52, this amount of single irrigation contributed to ET a by 8% in S I treatment. As to the rest contribution of the ET a value were obtained from moisture storage of soil profile. The results also showed that S I increased grain yield by 34.3%, as well as led to the increase of W P by 23.5%. P 15 as compared to P 30 resulted in 25.2% and 25.6% promotion in yield and W P , respectively. The same trend of increasing in yield (14.7%) and W P (12.8%) was noticed from the effect of S 50 compared to S 0 .