EFFECT OF ORGANIC SEED PRIMING ON YIELD AND YIELD ATTRIBUTING TRAITS OF CHICKPEA (Cicer arietinum L.) IN DROUGHT PRONE AREA

The goals of this study are to evaluate the suitable variety and priming method and find out the interaction effect of seed priming and variety for maximization of chickpea yield and yield attributes at drought-prone region. The Agronomy Research Plot of Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, Bangladesh led this experiment during November 2021 to April 2022 following randomized complete block design with three replications. The experiment had two factors: (A) two chickpea varieties, V1= BARI Chola-10 and V2= BARI Chola-11, and (B) five priming treatments, P1= Control (No priming), P2= Hydropriming, P3= Alovera leaf extract, P4= Azadirachta indica leaf extract, and P5= Moringa olifera leaf extract. It was manifested that BARI Chola-10 (V1) exhibited the superior performance in the yield and yield attributing traits subjected to no. of pods plant-1 (5.62), no. of seeds plant-1 (2.18), 1000 seeds weight (207.8 g), grain (1.76 t ha-1), stover (2.71 t ha-1) and biological yield (4.48 t ha-1). In varied priming treatments, P5 (Moringa olifera leaf extract) produced the most grain yield (2.07 t ha-1), whereas control (P1) produced the least (1.35 t ha-1). The maximal stover yield was 2.72 t ha-1 with Moringa olifera leaf extract and the lowest was 2.40 t ha-1 without priming. The treatment combination V1P5 performed best in extent of grain (2.13 t ha-1) and stover yield (2.83 t ha-1) whereas the minimum seed yield (1.30 t ha-1) and stover yield (2.26 t ha-1) were recorded from V2P1 treatment combination. BARI Chola-10 (V1) primed with Moringa olifera leaf extract (P5) improved chickpea yield in the study region.