The study on interaction effect of biologic fertilizers, mineral nitrogen fertilizer and hydropriming on emergence properties and yield components of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Chickpea is the third most important pulse crop in the world, grown widely across Asia and the Middle East. In order to study the effect of on-farm hydropriming and two bio-fertilizers on emergence rate and yield characteristics of irrigated chickpea cultivar arman, a factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete blocks design with three replications at Agricultural Research Station of Kermanshah in the spring of 2016. The factors consisted of starter nitrogen (0, 25 and 50 kg/ha from sources urea) bio-fertilizer (Mycorrhizae, Azotobacter, both of them and no-application) and priming (priming and no-priming). Results showed that priming increased emergence percent by 7.6 and emergence rate by 19.8 in conjunction with mycorrhizae and 50 kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer compared with no-primed, no- nitrogen and no bio-fertilizer. Highest biological and grain yield were 823.7 and 304 g.m-2 respectively that produced by primed seeds with application of two bio-fertilizers simultaneously at 50 and 25 kg/ha of nitrogen respectively that were 147 and 250 (1.47 and 2.50 times) percent more compared to their controls in own nitrogen fertilizer levels. In this study, the highest harvest index and number of pods/m2 were achieved in priming treatment with application of two bio-fertilizers simultaneously and nitrogen fertilizer consumption of 25 kg/ha.