Effect of Agronomic Biofortification of Zinc and Iron on Plant Height and Seed Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Varieties

Abstract

The present field experiment was conducted to study the effect of agronomic biofortification of zinc and iron on chickpea during Rabi season of 2021-22 and 2022-23 at the instructional farm, College of Agriculture, Jodhpur. The field experiment was laid out in split plot design comprised two varieties of chickpea (‘GNG-2144’ and ‘GNG-2171’) and three levels of iron fortification treatment including control (F0), 20 kg FeSO4 (SA) + 0.5 % FeSO4 (F1) and 25 kg FeSO4 (SA) + 0.5 % FeSO4 (F3) in the main plot and four-levels of zinc fortification viz. control (Z0), ZSB (SI) + 15 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO4 (Z1), ZSB (SI) + 20 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO4 (Z2) and ZSB (SI) + 25 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO4 (Z3) in sub-plot. These three experimental variables make twenty-four treatment combinations were taken as experimental factors to study their effect on biofortification in chickpea. The results revealed that variety GNG-2144 recorded higher plant height and higher seed yield over variety GNG-2171. Among Iron levels treatment 25 kg FeSO4 (SA) + 0.5 % FeSO4 (F3) significantly recorded higher seed yield as compare to 20 kg FeSO4 (SA) + 0.5 % FeSO4 (F1). Moreover, Zinc fortification treatment ZSB (SI) + 25 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO4 (Z3) was found significantly superior over the treatment ZSB (SI) + 15 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO4 (Z1) and at par with ZSB (SI) + 20 kg ZnSO4 (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO4 (Z2).