Suitable chickpea cultivars for rainfed situations in black soils of South India

Abstract

A field study was conducted during winter seasons of 2007–08 and 2008–09 in a randomized block design with three replications to evaluate the performance of chickpea cultivars under rainfed conditions in the Vertisols of Bellary, India. Among the eight varieties evaluated, JG11 and BGD103 outperformed others. During normal to below normal rainfall year of 2007, JG 11 produced 16% higher grain yield over local variety, i.e., A1. During above normal rainfall year of 2008, BGD103 produced 8% higher yield over A1 and 33% higher yield over KAK2. The mean of two years indicates that JG11 and BGD103 produced 9% and 7% higher yields over A1. Among the varieties evaluated JG11 produced higher straw yields of 14.01 and 14.48 q had during 2007–08 and 2008–09, respectively. Correlation studies indicated that the pod weight, grain weight and total dry matter production per plant determine the chickpea grain yield.