Determination of the Optimum Sowing Date of Chickpea (Cicer arientinum L.) Under Rain Fed Condition

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in Guraghe zone Meskan and Sodo districts, from August 2013 to February 2014  on farmers’ fields with objectives of investigating effects of seven sowing dates namely  Mid to late August (23/08/2013),  late August  (30/08/2013),  Early September (06/09/2013), Mid September (13/09/2013) Mid to late September (20/09/2013) Late September (27/09/2013) Early October (04/10/2013) on growth and yield components of chickpea variety Habru (FLIP 88-42c). The trial was carried out with RCBD design with three replications in each of the sites. Results showed mean squares of plant height, grain yield and growth duration were significant unlike that of seeds/pod, branch number/plant and hundred seed weight. Plants from early sown plots were 13.8 cm and 36 days taller and older than plants from later sowings, respectively. Similarly, disease incidence was significantly higher (p<0.05) in earlier sowings than that of later once. Consequently, grain yield due to Mid September sowing resulted in significantly higher (p<0.05) yield (24.7 q/ha) compared to either early October (14.8 q/ha) or early August (15.1 q/ha) sowings. The harvest index showed that resource use efficiency and partitioning between growth and yield components was maximized in September sowings. Thus this study revealed that neither early nor late sowing are suitable for chick pea production under rain fed conditions of Guraghe zone.

Keywords: Chickpea, sowing date and growth duration