Effect of cultivation method on yield, yield attributes and economics attributes of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L) the semi-arid Condition of Kandahar Afghanistan

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy farm, Afghanistan National Agricultural Science and Technology University, during the period from 2 March to 12 June 2020 to study the effect of two types of cultivation methods such as raised bed and flatbed on the yield, yield attributes and economics attributes of chickpea. The experiment was laid out in a Split Plot design with three replications. All the nutrients were applied as basal on land preparation operation. Seeds were sown manually @ 30 kg ha-1 for a flatbed as well as @ 45cm x 10 cm spacing for a raised bed. Observations were recorded for various growth parameters and yield attributes at 30 DAS, 60 DAS and harvest. Statistical analysis of data was done online through OPSTAT software. Raised bed cultivation method significantly enhanced the growth parameters of chickpea viz., plant height (4.44 cm, 8.40 cm and 25.45 cm at 30 DAS, 60 DAS and harvest), dry matter plant-1 (3.12 g, 5.26 g and 15.50 g at 30 DAS, 60 DAS and at harvest. Yield attributes viz., number of pod plant-1 (20.15), number of grain pod-1 (1.38), and 1,000-grain weight (207.44 g) showed remarkable improvement with raised bed cultivation method Yield of chickpea viz., grain yield (1.21 t ha-1), Stover yield (1.33 t ha-1) biological yield (3.44 t ha-1) and harvest index (27.44 t ha-1) were recorded significantly higher with raised bed cultivation method. Similarly, significantly higher economics attributes viz., Cost of cultivation (26,989 AFN ha-1), gross returns (104,795AFN ha-1), net returns (76,854 AFN ha-1), and benefit-cost ratio (2.78), recorded with raised bed cultivation method.