Abstract

Twenty chickpea genotypes were grown under rainout shelter to investigate the influence of water stress treatments imposed at varied growth stages; T₁; Control, T₂; One pre-sowing irrigation, T₃; withholding irrigation at flower-initiation, T₄; withholding irrigation at pod-initiation stage. The plant height, branches, dry weight of stem, leaves and root plant^-1, leaf area, leaf area index were recorded at 120 days after sowing (DAS) which showed significant variation with water stress at varied growth stages. The maximum reduction in height and branches was observed when irrigation was restricted at T₂ stage. Restricted irrigation decreased the biomass of stem, leaves and roots leading to reduced leaf area and leaf area index as well. The yield traits viz. 100 seed weight, total number of pods, percentage filled pods were reduced significantly under stress. The grain yield under restricted conditions was reduced by 40.50 to 55.91% over irrigated control in T₄ to T₂, respectively. Among the tested genotypes, GL28151, RSG963, PDG3 maintained higher growth, yield and yield traits showing their tolerance to water stress, while GL22044, RSG1861 and RVSSG4 were adversely affected most in growth traits and yield as well.

Key words: Water stress, chickpea, growth traits, yield.