Vol. 7, Issue 8 (2018)

Author(s):
Bethala Kumeera, Swapnil Matikhaye, AK Chaurasia and PW Ramteke

Abstract:
A field experiment was conducted in the Department of Biological Sciences at SHUATS Allahabad, during Rabi session 2017-2018 to study the “Effect of seed priming with inorganics on growth, yield and physiological parameters of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Under drought”. The chickpea var. pusa-362 was imposed with seven inorganic seed priming treatments viz., 2% KNO3, 2% NaCl2, 2% CaCl2, 2% KH2PO4, 2% KCl, water soaked for 8 Hours, and control. The treated seeds along with control were evaluated for their morpho-physiological, growth, yield, root parameters and biochemical parameters under laboratory and field conditions. The study revealed that seeds priming techniques with CaCl2 @ 2% recorded highest in plant height (cm), seed yield (g), no. of pods/plant and root parameters of nodules/plant and other biochemical parameters. The increased seed yield in seed priming with CaCl2-2% attributed to increase in the total chlorophyll, chl-a. and chl-b, total chlorophyll content, proline content, relative water content, protein content as compare to control. The treatments of 2% CaCl2 followed by 2% KNO3 were found to be superior for most physiological parameters. Thus this study indicates that seed priming with inorganics modifies the physiological and biochemical nature of seeds so as to get the characters that are favorable for drought tolerance which more with CaCl2-2% as compared to other treatments.