Impact of Sowing Date and Variety on the Performance of Chickpea in the Western-Terai Region of Nepal

Aims: An appropriate date of sowing and selecting a suitable variety are the most important factors to produce chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Thus, a field experiment was conducted to determine the impact of sowing dates on the growth and yield of chickpea varieties. Study Design: The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design. Place and Duration of Study: This experiment was conducted at the Grain Legumes Research Program (28° 06'' 45'N latitude, 81° 35'' 58' E longitude, and 182 masl) during the winter season of two consecutive years, 2022/23 and 2023/24. Methodology: The experiment was conducted under three replications involving five sowing dates viz., 1st November, 8th November, 15th November, 22nd November, and 29th November as a main factor, and two promising varieties viz., KPG 59 and ICCV 97207 as a sub-factor in ten treatment combinations. Results: Findings show that the sowing date was highly significant (P = .01) and influenced the days to flowering and maturity, while the yield and harvest index was significantly (P = .05) influenced. The 15th November sown chickpea produced the highest seed yield (2679 kg/ha) and harvest index (38.9%) compared to the other sowings. Comparatively, the variety ICCV 97207 took a longer number of days to flower and mature (98 and 148 days), produced a taller plant (65.5 cm) with a higher 100 seed weight (24.5 g(, and ultimately higher seed yield (2544 kg/ha) and harvest index (37.4%) than the KPG 59 variety which yields lower (2338 t/ha). Conclusion: It can be concluded that the higher seed yield of chickpea was found from variety ICCV 97207 with the sowing on 1st November (2826 kg/ha).