Impact of Moisture Conservation Practices, Seed Inoculation and Zinc Level on Growth and Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

A field experiment was conducted during the Rabi season of 2020-21 and 2021-22. The experiment was laid out in split-split plot design with 27 treatment combination comprising of three moisture conservation practices viz. flat bed with 2.5 t/ha crop residue, narrow bed and furrow with 2.5 t ha-1 crop residue and broad bed and furrow with 2.5 t ha-1 crop residue in main plot and three seed inoculation viz. control, rhizobium and PSB in sub plot with three zinc level viz. control, 2.5 kg Zn ha-1 and 5.0 kg Zn ha-1 in sub-sub plot. Result shows that the broad bed and furrow with 2.5 t ha-1 crop residue produced significantly all growth parameters and yields attributes as compare to flat bed with 2.5 t ha-1 crop residue and narrow bed and furrow with 2.5 t ha-1 crop residue, respectively. The all growth parameters and yields attributes were significantly recorded higher under seed inoculation with rhizobium over PSB and control. The application of different dose of zinc produced marked significant variation in growth parameter and yield attributes when it increased up to 5.0 kg Zn ha-1. The highest yields were significantly receive in broad bed and furrow with 2.5 t ha-1 crop residue over narrow bed and furrow with 2.5 t ha-1 crop residue and flat bed with 2.5 t ha-1 crop residue, respectively with percent increment 16.33, 24.65, 11.47 and 7.16 in respect of biological yield, grain yield, stover yield and harvest index, respectively over control in pooled data. Seed inoculation with rhizobium produced significantly higher yields parameter over control and PSB with percent increment 5.37, 7.72, 3.84 and 2.34 in biological yield, grain yield, stover yield and harvest index, respectively over control. Application of 5.0 kg Zn ha-1 were produced significantly higher yields with percent increment 6.24, 7.25, 5.56 and 1.01 over control in respect of biological yield, grain yield, stover yield and harvest index, respectively. Therefore, broad bed and furrow with 2.5 t ha-1 crop residue and rhizobium inoculation with dose of 5.0 kg Zn ha-1 were significantly superior in respect to growth and yield attributes and yields of chickpea in present investigation.