Effect of Sowing Dates on Yield and Yield Components of Some Selected Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Varieties

Abstract

Most suitable sowing date and high yielding varieties are the primary agricultural practices to enhance production and productivity of chickpea. Hence, a field experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of sowing dates on yield and yield components of chickpea varieties in the main cropping season of 2019 at Toke Kutaye, Ethiopia. Treatments consisted of four sowing dates (September 4th, September 14th, September 24th, and October 5th) and four kabuli varieties of chickpea; namely Dube (standard check), Dalota, Teji and Ejere. The experiment was laid out in split plot design using factorial arrangement with three replications where sowing date treatments were assigned to the main plots and varieties to sub plots. Dalota variety produced the highest number of pods (79.7) per plant. the main effects of sowing date and varieties were significantly different on biological yield. Highest biological yield (3776.9 kg ha-1 and 3761 kg ha-1) were recorded from September 24th and September 14th sown plots, respectively. Among varieties tested, the highest biological yield (3723.8 kg ha-1) was obtained from local variety. Highest grain yield (2415.4 kg ha-1) was recorded from plots sown on September 14th whereas Dalota variety produced highest grain yield (2051.25 kg ha-1). In case of harvest index, highest (67.9% and 59.6%) was recorded from September 14th sown plots and Dalota variety, respectively. Therefore, Dalota variety and September 14th sowing date emerged as best among all tested treatments and could be recommended for chickpea production in the study area.