Chickpea performance influenced by inorganic fertilizer, biofertilizers and micronutrients and their residual effects on succeeding fodder sorghum

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Anand Agricultural University, Derol during the rabi and summer seasons of 2013-14 and 2014-15 to determine the effect of inorganic fertilizer, biofertilizers, and micronutrients, as well as their interactions, on chickpea growth, yield attributes, and yield, as well as their residual effect on succeeding fodder sorghum.Results indicated that fertilizer levels treatment F3i.e., 100 % RDF (25-50 kg NP ha-1)had significant influence on growth and yield attributing characters like plant height,number of branches plant-1,number of nodules plant-1, number of pods plant-1and also on seed and straw yields of chickpea as compared to treatments F2 (75 % RDF), F1(50 % RDF) and F0 (Control).The residual effect of treatment F3 (100% RDF) had also significantinfluenceon the green fodder yield, dry fodder yield and crude protein content of succeeding fodder sorghum.When compared to B0 (control), the biofertilizers treatment B1 (PSB + Rhizobium @ 5 ml kg-1 seed each) produced significantly higher growth, yield, and yield of chickpea.Application of micronutrients treatment M1(Micronutrient mixture grade-V @ 20 kg ha-1) produced significantly highernumber of branches plant-1, number of nodules plant-1number of pod plant-1, seed yield and straw yield as compared to untreated control (M0).Treatment combination F3B1M1 produced significantly the highest 85 nodules plant-1, number of pods plant-1, seed and straw yields of chickpea, but it was statistically at par with treatment combination F2B1M1 during both the years and on pooled basis.