Yield and Yield Attributes of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) as Influenced by Planting Dates and Weed Management Systems

Chickpea is one of the major winter legumes of Nepal, grown in terai and inner terai predominantly. To ascertain the degree of variation exhibited by the weed management practices at different stages of chickpea crop growth due to influence of dates of sowing, an experiment was conducted during rabi season of consecutive years (2018-19 and 2019-20) at the farmer’s field in Bhairahawa, Rupandehi district, Lumbini Province, Nepal. This location has a typical sub tropical climate characterized by hot, dry summer and cool winter. The field experiment consisted of two factors: dates of sowing and weeds management practices and was conducted in split plot design with three replications. Three dates of sowing i.e. 10th November, 25th November and 5th December were allocated under main plot and eight weed management practices i.e. weedy, weed free (two hands weeding at 30 and 60 DAS), Pendimethalin(PRE)@1kg a.i. ha-1, Quizalofop(POST)@50g a.i. ha-1, Imazethapyr (POST)@37.5g a.i. ha-1, Pendimethalin (PRE)@1kg a.i. ha-1 followed by Quizalofop (POST) @50g a.i. ha-1, Pendimethalin (PRE)@1kg a.i. ha-1 followed by Imazethapyr (POST)@ 37.5 g a.i. ha-1 and Pendimethalin (PRE)@1kg a.i. ha-1 followed by mechanical weeding. The maximum and the minimum yield attributes were found to be significantly different in the 10th November-sown crop and the 5th December-sown crop, respectively. The Harvest index was recorded maximum under Pendimethalin (PRE) treated crop. Among herbicides, Pendimethalin (PRE) followed by Quizalofop (POST) recorded more values of yield attributes and yield while that were the minimum in Imazethapyr treatment due to its phytotoxic effect on the crop, so use of this herbicide is not recommended pulse crops like chickpea. It is vital to conduct further research in these areas to bring out eco-friendly and cost-effective alternatives.