Germination and Yield Improvements in Chickpea through Organic Seed Priming Agents

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second most important legume crop. Chickpeas more customarily known as gram, is mainly grown during the Rabi season. The production of Cicer arietinum in Pakistan is minimum to other growing crops domains which are raising chickpea. Chickpea is mainly cultivated in rainfed or sandy areas of Pakistan. To fill in the yield gap, a series of experiments was conducted in which different concentrations of plant extracts i.e., Control, Distilled water, Moringa leaves extract (3%), Neem leaves extract (1%), Sugar beet extract (2%) and Jujube leaves extract (1%) was used to evaluate the comparative seed priming effect of natural growth promoting substances to improve stand establishment and yield of chickpea. All the treatments significantly improved the antioxidant defense, enzyme, phonological, quality and yield attributes. Compared with the control, the moringa leaf extract increased the action of antioxidant enzymes like APX (2.48%), CAT (22%) and SOD (18.23%). Moringa leaf extract contains antioxidants (phenolics and ascorbates), vitamins, several micro and macronutrients, zeatin, auxins and abscisic acid, which are responsible for high growth and yield. Standard procedures were used to capture data on agronomic characteristics, stand establishment physiology, and germination. However, the highest yield was linked to priming seeds with 3% moringa leaf extract, followed by 1% sugar beet root extract. Aim of this research is to enhance the germination and yield via organic seed priming agents.