Tillage Practices Affect Rhizospheric Moisture Availability and Performance of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Cultivars under Spate Irrigation in Punjab, Pakistan

Selection of suitable tillage technique can ensure most productive use of available hill torrent water in spate irrigated areas for improved crop productivity and profitability. During rabi season 2021-22, a field study on chickpea was undertaken in Vidor hill torrent command area of Dera Ghazi Khan Punjab, Pakistan. In this experiment three cultivars of chickpea viz Bittle-2016, Thal-2020 and Bhakhar-2011 were evaluated under spate irrigated conditions along with local cultivar (Farmer practice) for comparison. Tillage practices at the seedbed preparation stage evaluated were cultivator and rotavator as follows i.e. T1= Two turns of cultivator (Farmer practice), T2=Three turns of cultivator, T3=Two turns of cultivator + one turn of rotavator, T4= one turn of cultivator + one turn of rotavator. The experiment was conducted under randomized complete block design (RCBD) with factorial arrangement and treatments were replicated three times. Soil moisture was measured through gravimetric method and chickpea yield parameters were estimated as per standard procedures. The means were tested for significance using HSD Tuckey’s test at 5 % level of probability. Results revealed that cultivars and tillage practices showed significant variations for tested parameters. In this experiment maximum soil moisture conservation, number of branches per plant, pods per plant, seeds per pod, seed yield (kg ha-1) and harvest index (%) were observed from Farmer practice i.e. 2 turns of cultivator under local cultivar used. Moreover, comparatively similar results were revealed from the plots where 3 turns of cultivator was run and Thal-2020 cultivar was grown under the local conditions of Vidor hill torrent command area of Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, Pakistan. Plots where 2 turns cultivator was used, the maximum benefit cost ratio (BCR, 1.85) was observed from local cultivar (Farmer practice). Moreover, among newly tested cultivars, Thal-2020 showed encouraging results in terms of soil moisture contents, yield attributes with BCR 1.73 in plots where 2 turns cultivator was run. Under the prevailing agro normals of spate irrigated conditions of Vidor hill torrent command area, farmers should use 2 turns of cultivator with local cultivar. However, more research is needed to acclimatize latest varieties of chickpea after adaptability trials.