Response of Two Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Varieties to Rates of Blended Fertilizer and Row Spacing at Tselemti District, Northern Ethiopia
Hindawi
Advances in Agriculture
Volume 2018, Article ID 5085163, 8 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5085163
Research Article
Response of Two Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Varieties to
Rates of Blended Fertilizer and Row Spacing at Tselemti District,
Northern Ethiopia
Tesfahun Mekuanint ,1 Yemane Tsehaye,2 and Yemane G. Egziabher2
1
Shire-Maytsebri Agricultural Research Center, Shire-Endasilase, Tigray, Ethiopia
Mekelle University, Department of Dry Land Crop and Horticultural Sciences, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
2
Correspondence should be addressed to Tesfahun Mekuanint;
Received 2 April 2018; Accepted 4 September 2018; Published 4 October 2018
Academic Editor: Christos Tsadilas
Copyright © 2018 Tesfahun Mekuanint et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Effects of row spacing, blended fertilizer rates, and varieties on some agronomic traits of chickpea were evaluated with the objective
of investigating response of Kabuli and Desi type chick pea varieties to blended fertilizers rates and interrow spacing. The study
was done using split plot design interrow spacing as a main plot, and fertilizer and variety as a subplot, where three row spacings
(20 cm, 30 cm, and 40 cm) were assigned to the main plot while the factorial combination of four blended (NPSB) fertilizer rates
(0 kg/ha, 50 kg/ha, 100 kg/ha, and 150 kg/ha) and representative of Kabuli and Desi type chickpea varieties such as Arerti and Mariye,
respectively, were assigned to the subplot. Main effect of interrow spacing did not show significant difference on many studied
agronomic parameters. Similarly, main effect of blended fertilizer rates and varieties did not reveal a significant difference for the
studied parameters. However, significant differences were obtained on phenology, yield components, and yield for the varieties.
Blended fertilizer rates utilized in Tselemti District did not show differences in most of studied traits. Reasonable row spacing of
20 cm for both types of chickpea could be used for the studied area.
1. Introduction
In Ethiopia, Chickpea is the third leading food legume in the
area and its production is second to faba bean and haricot
bean. It is an integral part of the cropping system of the
farmers all over the country, because this crop fits well in the
crop rotation and mixed cropping system. It has multiple uses
and the ability to grow under the condition of low fertility and
varying conditions of soil and climate [1].
The yield potential of present day chickpea cultivars
exceeds 4.0 t ha−1 [2], while the average national yield is
stagnating around 1.9 t ha−1 and the regional average yield is
1.4 t ha−1 [3]. The gap between average yield and potential
yield is mostly due to poor crop management and cultural practices such as imbalanced use of fertilizer, lack of
improved varieties to different environmental condition, and
inappropriate use of plant density. In the study area, Agricultural Transformation Agency recommended site specific
blended fertilizer but relatively no investigations have analyzed the application rates of the new recommended site
specific nutrient blended fertilizer NPSB (18.1N, 36.1P2 O5 ,
6.7S, and 0.71B or 95 kg/100 kg NPS + 4.9 kg Borax) on
chickpea and agronomic managements for improving crop
productivity. Besides, in the study area limited research has
been done on the interaction effects of various agronomic
practices such as variety spacing and its effect in different
chickpea varieties such as Kabuli and Desi type. These are
two distinct types of chickpea, called Desi and Kabuli, that
differ in size, color, and surface of seeds, flower color, and
morphology. Both these types are divergent geographically
and broadly vary in their adaptation, nutrition, and biotic and
abiotic stress tolerance [4].
Optimum plant population of a crop at one location
may not be applied at other locations because of variation
infertility status of the soil, rainfall distribution, and nutrient
and moisture availability. There is also no site and variety
2
Advances in Agriculture
Figure 1: Location of the study area.
specific recommendation on the plant population of chickpea
variety in Ethiopia; rather there is blanket recommendation
of spacing of 30 cm x 10 cm; this is irrespective of factors
such as the maturity group, growth habit, and soil condition
and vegetation zone varieties of Kabuli and Desi type and
agroclimatic condition. There are few research and information about growth and development response of chickpea
cultivars to change in plant population. Hence, both types
of chickpea are produced in the country as well as in the
study area (Figure 1); it requires developing site specific
row spacing recommendations for chickpea varieties through
conducting experiments for the area. Selection of best variety
accompanied with appropriate fertilizer rate and optimum
plant density is very important to enhance the productivity
of chickpea varieties. Therefore, this study was initiated
to identify appropriate rates of blended fertilizer and row
spacing for varieties of chickpea in the study area.
Table 1: Chemical and physical characteristics of the soil of
experimental site.
Parameters
Sand (%)
Clay (%)
Silt (%)
Av.K(ppm)
Av.Pppm
TN (%)
EC(us)
EC(mmh)
OM (%)
CEC(meq/100 g soil)
EC(dSm−1 )
pH
Value
14
22
64
27.5
2.844
0.078
518
0.518
1.559
68
0.32
6
(2016, Shire soil research center).
2. Materials and Methods
Two chickpea varieties, Mariye (Desi type) and Arerti (Kabuli
type), released by Debre Zeit Agricultural research center
were used for the study. The field experiment was laid out as
a split plot design spacing as a main plot fertilizer and variety
as a subplot. The interrow spacings of 20 cm (500,000 plants),
30 cm (333,333 plants ha−1 ), and 40 cm (250,000 plants ha−1 )
were assigned to the main plot whereas varieties Arerti
(Kabuli type) and Mariye (Desi type) and blended fertilizer
(NPSB 18.1% N, 36.1% P2 O5 , 6.7% S and 0.71% B) with four
levels (0 kg ha−1 , 50 kg ha−1 , 100 kg ha−1 , and 150 kg ha−1 )
was assigned to the subplot with twenty-four treatment
combinations replicated three times. The fertilizer rates were
applied by dibbling during sowing of the experiment. The
experiment was planted in September, 2016 (Figure 2).
Surface soil samples (0-30 cm) were collected before
sowing and after harvesting from 72 spots and composited
and analyzed in the laboratory for selected chemical and
physical soil properties (Table 1). Soil texture determination
was done by hydrometric method [5]. Organic matter was
determined based on the oxidation of organic carbon with
acid dichromate medium following the Walkley and Black
method as described by Dewis and Freitas [6]. Kjeldahl
method [6] was used to determine total N. The available soil P
was determined according to the meth (...truncated)
