Effect of Terminal Drought on Yield and Yield Components of Five Chickpea Genotypes

Drought, specially in reproductive stage is one of the major constraints, limiting the productivity of crops, including chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). To study the effects of drought during pod set and seed filling stages (terminal drought) on phenology, growth and seed yield of 5 Kabuli chickpea genotypes of: Arman, Jam, Hasham, Flip93-93 (Azad) and ILC482, an experiment was conducted during the 2006 growing season at the experimental field of the Agricultural Faculty of Bu-Ali Sina University. The trial was a split plot one on the basis of a randomized complete block design with three replications. The irrigation levels (irrigation at podding, at both podding vs seed filling stages and no irrigation) constituted the main plots while the chickpea genotypes constituting the subplots. The results revealed that growth duration, biological and seed yields were significantly decreased by drought stress but no significant difference was observed between harvest index among all the irrigation levels. Among the yield components, the number of pods per plant and seed weight exerted the most effect on reduction of seed yield in water stress conditions. Irrigation at podding increased seed yield of genotypes by 12 to 60% but there was no significant difference observed among the yield of genotypes in drought conditions as compared with irrigation at podding except in Jam and ILC482. A comparsion of seed yield of genotypes in drought conditions showed that Hashem and Jam cv's exhibited the least and the most reaction to drought stress, respectively.