H.S. Sekhon

Effect of irrigation and biofertilizer on water use, nodulation, growth and yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

The field experiment studied the effect of irrigation [irrigation 15 days before sowing (DBS), irrigation 15 DBS + rice straw mulch, irrigation 7 DBS and irrigation 7 DBS + one irrigation at flower initiation] and biofertilizers [no biofertilizer (control), Rhizobium inoculation and Rhizobium inoculation + phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB)] on chickpea growth. In mulch treatment, paddy straw mulch was applied at 4 t ha−1 one day after pre-sowing irrigation and was retained until sowing. Pre-sowing irrigation at 15 DBS showed 28.7 and 30.0% less plant stand than irrigation applied 15 DBS + straw mulch and irrigation applied 7 DBS, respectively. Nodulation was significantly higher with irrigation 15 DBS + mulch and irrigation 7 DBS than with irrigation applied 15 DBS. The grain yield was 16.6, 20.3 and 44.0% higher in irrigation 15 DBS + mulch, irrigation 7 DBS and irrigation 7 DBS + irrigation at flowering treatments, respectively, over irrigation at 15 DBS. Rhizobium inoculation significantly improved the number of nodules and nodule dry weight compared with no treatment. Grain yield was significantly higher with Rhizobium than in untreated plots. Water use efficiency was highest when irrigation was applied 7 DBS.

Water Use Efficiency Under Stress Environments

Water supply is a major constraint to crop production particularly for grain legumes more than 80% of which are grown under rainfed conditions. Global warming is increasing the problem by creating serious water shortages and large inter-seasonal fluctuations. Water use efficiency (WUE) provides a quick and simple measure of how well rain or irrigation water can be converted into grain. It represents a given level of biomass or grain yield per unit of water used by the crop. Improving crop productivity therefore requires answering the following question. How can WUE be improved and how can cropping systems be modified to result in a more efficient use of water?

Lentil-Based Cropping Systems

Lentil is a protein-rich winter season pulse crop. Its cultivation is concentrated mostly in semi-arid regions in the Indian sub-continent and dry areas of Middle East. It can be grown under conserved moisture conditions after monsoon rains. The sowing of lentil is popular as mono and sequential cropping, intercropping, mixed cropping, relay cropping and multistorey cropping in various countries. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, rice-lentil system is more common but its cultivation is also done after maize, cotton, sorghum and pearlmillet. It can be intercropped successfully in wheat, barley, mustard and linseed. For mixed/intercropping optimum seeding and planting configuration is very important to achieve higher total productivity. In various experiments lentil+wheat (30%), lentil + mustard 5 : 1 row ratio and lentil+linseed 5 : 1 row ratio showed highest land equivalent ratio than sole lentil. In autumn sugarcane, lentil intercropping revealed higher cane equivalent yield than sole sugarcane. In eastern India, the broadcasting of lentil seed in standing rice about 15 days before the harvest gave significantly higher grain yield than lentil sown after the harvest of rice. The inclusion of lentil in various cropping systems improves physical properties of soil and increases the yield of succeeding cereal crop due to biological nitrogen fixation and other rotational effects. Proper agronomic management, use of bio-fertilizers and mechanical cultivation may not only improvebreak productivity but also help to bring large area under lentil in various cropping systems