Thermal regime requirement and plant responses of chickpea cultivars under variable weather conditions

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2006-07 and 2007-08 at Agromet Research Farm of N.D. University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Faizabad with three chickpea cultivars viz. Awarodhi, Radhey and Uday grown under three dates of sowing. Results revealed that phasic duration and thermal unit from sowing to maturity decreased with successive delay in sowing. The accumulated thermal unit during the entire growth period of the crop decreased from 21370days under October 31 sowing to 17850 days under late sowing (sowing delayed by 20 days). Number of pods and number of seeds per pod increased with increasing temperature from 9.1-23.50C. Maximum temperature during reproductive stage had negative correlation on the yield. Yield decreased with successive increase of maximum temperature from 27.2-32.90C.

Keywords

• Thermal
• plant responses
• cultivars
• weather
• yield attributes