INFLUENCE OF BIOFERTILIZERS, FERTILITY LEVELS AND WEED MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.) UNDER

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted for two consecutive years from 2003-04 during winter season at the Varanasi to find out an effective biofertilizer, fertility level and weed management practice on weed growth and yield of chickpea under late sown condition. Application of VAM exhibited significantly higher weed dry matter accumulation than the application of other bio-fertilizer sources. However, maximum seed and straw yields were recorded with the combined application of Rhizobium and VAM which was on par with inoculation of Rhizobium but significantly higher than the VAM alone in both the years. Application of 75% recommended NPK dose recorded the lowest weed dry weight than rest of the fertilizer levels. The highest chickpea seed I6. and 17.2 q/ha) and straw yields (36.2 and 37.3 q/ha) was noted under 125% recommended NPK dose. Pre-emergence application of pendimethalin 0.5 kg/ha coupled with one hoeing at 40 days after sowing significantly reduced the weed dry weight which resulted in 16.5 per cent and 15.3 per cent in 2002-03 and 2003-04, respectively higher seed yield over unweeded check condition.