Effect of Irrigation Regime and Plant Density on Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Yield in the Semi-Arid Environment of Sudan

A field experiment was conducted for two consecutive winter seasons at the semi-arid conditions in Northern Sudan, to study the effect of different levels of irrigation regime and plant density on yield of introduced small seeded (desi type) chickpea cultivar (ILC 482). The experiment was laid out in a 3 × 3 factorial split-plot design with 4 replications. The treatments consisted of three irrigation regimes designated as follows: I1=irrigation after drainage of 50%, I2=irrigation after drainage of 75% and I3=irrigation after drainage of 100% of available water based on 70%, 60% and 50% of field capacity, assigned as main plots and three plant densities (D1=20, D2=40 and D3=60 plants/ m²), assigned as subplots. The results indicated that the yield components (number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight), seed yield per plant, harvest index and yield per unit area were significantly (p<0.05) affected by irrigation regime. Decreasing irrigation regime significantly (p<0.05) decreased all measured parameters. Alternatively, increasing plant density significantly (p<0.05) decreased the number of pods and seed yield per plant and increased seed yield per unit area. While number of seeds per pod and harvest index were not significantly (p>0.05) affected by plant density. Interaction between irrigation regime and plant density also significantly (p<0.05) affected all measured parameters of yield, except for harvest index. It may be concluded that the best irrigation regime was full irrigation (every 10 days) and the optimal plant density was 40 plants/m² for chickpea grown under semi-arid conditions.

Author(s): Atif H Naim, Abdelkarim H Awadelkaraim, Sershen, Faisal E Ahmed

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