The Effect of Water Limitation and Density on Growth and Grain Yield of Chickpea

In order to evaluate the effect of different levels of irrigation and plant density on growth and grain yield of chickpea cv. Kaka, a field study was conducted at Research Field Station of Faculty of Agriculture, Mohaghegh Ardabili University during 2006 growth season. Treatments were arranged as split plot on the basis of randomized complete block design with three replications. Differentirrigation levels (full irrigation, irrigation to flowering stage, irrigation after flowering stage a nd noirrigation) were assigned to main plots and sub-plots comprised of plant densities of 16, 32 and 64 plants/m2. Results showed that dry matter accumulation (DMA), crop growth rate (CGR) and relative growth rate (RGR) were considerably decreased as water deficit increased. The treatments of full irrigation and no-irrigation had the highest and the lowest of these indices, respectively. Also the values of these indices for irrigation to flowering stage were more than that irrigation after flowering stage. In all irrigation levels, the highest DMA and CGR were obtained at 64 plants/m2, but the highest RGR was achieved at 16 plants/m2. At various irrigation levels, differences between densities were higher at early stages of growth for RGR. However, this difference for RGR gradually decreased with increasing days after planting. Grain yield per unit area also was significantly reduced due to water deficit. Grain yield in full irrigation and irrigation to flowering stage were more than that other irrigation levels. Increasing plant density resulted in increasing grain yield per unit area as grain yield at 64 plants/m2 was significantly more than other densities.Interaction effects indicated that the highest and the lowest grain yield were achieved in 64 plants/m2 with full irrigation and 16 plants/m2 with no-irrigation, respectively. However, there was no significant difference between 64 and 32 plants/m2 in treatment with no irrigation. It was, therefore, concluded that according to water limitation in Iran, irrigation to flowering stage and 64 plants/m2 can be used to produce reasonable grain yield under the conditions of this study.