The effect of waterlogging on yield and yield components of chickpea under dry farming

About 10 percent of arable land in the world and almost one million hectares of land under cultivation in Iran has problem of waterlogging. When the soil water is increases as far that prevent the flow of oxygen in soil, waterlogging is happen. Plants have different mechanisms in the waterlogging conditions. The amount of damage depends to the crop, variety, waterlogging duration, plant growth stages, water temperature, and etc. So, this study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of different periods of waterlogging on various growth stages of chickpea in dry land conditions.
This study was carried out on chickpea cv. ‘ILC482’ at the agricultural research farm of Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran during 2013-2014. The experimental design was conducted in a split plot based on a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Treatment included time of waterlogging, establishment, vegetative, flowering and poding (14, 70, 126 and 182 days after sowing) were used as the main plot and four waterlogging durations (non-waterlogging, 4, 8 and 12 days waterlogging) served as the sub plots. Chickpea seeds were planted in autumn and dry land conditions. Grain and biomass yield, harvest index, number of grain per plant, number of pod per plant, 100-grain weight and grain protein content were measured at the end of experiment and also trend of grain filling, leaf area index, leaf dry weight and total dry weight were recorded during the waterlogging period.
The results showed that with increase waterlogging durations were increased of grain yield at establishment, vegetative and flowering, but decreased at the poding stage. The highest loss in grain yield was waterlogging at the poding stage. With increasing duration of waterlogging increased the number of grain per plant significantly (22.2%), but was contrary for grain weight. Detriment of waterlogging on the number of grain of chickpea was in the final growth stages about 40% compared to flowering. The lowest of grain protein was at the poding stage with 12 days waterlogging about 16.04%. Leaf area index, leaf dry weight and total dry weight increased with waterlogging treatment at establishments, vegetative and flowering stages, but at the poding stage decreased in all waterlogging periods.
The waterlogging conditions at different growth stages of chickpea in dry conditions (except for poding stage) was not only reduces the yield and yield components, but also after the removal of waterlogging, cause recovery and increase again growth after treatment and each plant produces new flowers and pods compensated the damage caused by waterlogging conditions. Furthermore, in this study, the most of damage to chickpea had non waterlogging (dry conditions) and 12 days waterlogged treatments.