Growth and yield in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes in response to water stress

Abstract

Twenty chickpea genotypes were grown under rainout shelter to investigate the influence of water stress treatments imposed at varied growth stages; T 1 ; Control, T 2 ; One pre-sowing irrigation, T 3 ; withholding irrigation at flower-initiation, T 4 ; withholding irrigation at pod-initiation stage. The plant height, branches, dry weight of stem, leaves and root plant-1 , leaf area, leaf area index were recorded at 120 days after sowing (DAS) which showed significant variation with water stress at varied growth stages. The maximum reduction in height and branches was observed when irrigation was restricted at T 2 stage. Restricted irrigation decreased the biomass of stem, leaves and roots leading to reduced leaf area and leaf area index as well. The yield traits viz. 100 seed weight, total number of pods, percentage filled pods were reduced significantly under stress. The grain yield under restricted conditions was reduced by 40.50 to 55.91% over irrigated control in T 4 to T 2 , respectively. Among the tested genotypes, GL28151, RSG963, PDG3 maintained higher growth, yield and yield traits showing their tolerance to water stress, while GL22044, RSG1861 and RVSSG4 were adversely affected most in growth traits and yield as well.

Low water supply differentially affects the growth, yield and mineral profile of kabuli and desi chickpeas (Cicer arietinum)

“…In plants growing with low water availability, growth is usually retarded, due to the absence of transpiration by closing stomata to prevent water loss from the plant, and apoplastic barriers block the transport of water and solutes into the plant, thus leading to lower biomass accumulation (Basu et al, 2016; Feng et al, 2016). Decreased shoot and root biomass of chickpea plants seem to occur when access to water is restricted at the reproductive stages (germination, flowering and pod initiation), rather that the vegetative stages (Randhawa et al, 2014; Ramamoorthy et al, 2016), and here, we demonstrate that biomass loss starts to become visible at 75%–50% FC (Figure 1c–f). At low water supplies, kabuli had the higher root dry weight, RS ratio (Figure 3a) and shoot water content (Figure 4a) than desi, whereas desi had the higher shoot dry weight and root water content.…”

“…Decreased shoot and root biomass of chickpea plants seem to occur when access to water is restricted at the reproductive stages (germination, flowering and pod initiation), rather that the vegetative stages (Randhawa et al, 2014;Ramamoorthy et al, 2016), and here, we demonstrate that biomass loss starts to become visible at 75%-50% FC (Figure 1c-f). At low water supplies, kabuli had the higher root dry weight, RS ratio (Figure 3a) and shoot water content (Figure 4a) than desi, whereas desi had the higher shoot dry weight and root water content.…”

“…Reduced chickpea yield under water stress largely results from pod abortion and impaired pod filling, which seem to occur as soon as water deficits start to develop, regardless of plant phenology (Leport et al, 2006; Randhawa et al, 2014). Root traits, such as root length, root biomass and RS ratio, are usually correlated with higher chickpea yield under water stress by facilitating water mining through and minimising transpiration (Kumar et al, 2012; Kashiwagi et al, 2015; Ramamoorthy et al, 2016; Ranjan et al, 2022; Sachdeva et al, 2022).…”

Impact of Simulated Drought Stress on Soil Microbiology, and Nematofauna in a Native Shrub + Millet Intercropping System in Senegal

“…Drought-induced stress has been linked to the modification of plant physiological traits, which in turn affects morphological parameters [41]. For example, water stress causes interruption of water flow from the xylem to the surrounding elongating cells, which in turn reduces plant height [42].…”

Boosting Productivity and Profitability of Chickpea through Cluster Front Line Demonstration (CFLD) in Churu District of Rajasthan

“…Chickpea is most important and extensively grown rabi pulse crop and it is the fourth largest grain legume crop in the world (Randhawa et al, 2014) and it is the most important pulse crop among the different pulses grown in the Indian subcontinent. The total area under chickpea cultivation is 21.13 lha with production of 22.65 lt in Rajasthan.…”