Vol. 12, Issue 9 (2023)

Author(s):
Soumya Patil, Nawalagatti CM, Mummigatti UV, Potdar MP and Ramesh SB

Abstract:
Chickpea is one of the major rabi pulse crops in India popularly called as “gram” being rich in protein. Chickpea accounts for an area of 98.86 lakh ha, and the production of 107.37 lakh tons with the productivity of 1086 kg ha^-1 annually. The productivity of the crop is constrained by numerous abiotic stresses and among them, drought or moisture stress is the main factor affecting agricultural performance worldwide, accounting 40–50% yield drop. Current study was conducted with a goal to identify, assess, and choose chickpea genotypes with high yield potential under moisture stress. In this context, the experiment was conducted during 2021-22 and 2022-23 at UAS Dharwad, Karnataka, India. Experiment was laid out in split plot design with two moisture stress conditions as main plot (irrigated and rainfed) and 15 chickpea genotypes in subplot, which were replicated thrice. Results of the investigation revealed that, moisture stress condition significantly reduced the yield and yield parameters by significant reduction in physiological and biochemical parameters. Among the genotypes ICCV 4958 (17.67 q ha^-1) has bagged maximum yield followed by DIBG 205 (16.93 q ha^-1) under rainfed condition and higher yield was due to maximum RWC, Chlorophyll content and proline content and with less membrane injury index.