Vol. 11, Special Issue 8 (2022)

Author(s):
AH Chauhan, RD Shinde, JC Shroff and KR Bhuriya

Abstract:
A field experiment entitled “Effect of potassium and zinc on yield and nutrient content of chickpea and fractions of potassium and zinc in soil” was carried out on Agronomy Farm, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand during rabi season of the year 2020-21. The experiment comprising nine treatment combinations consisted of three levels of potassium (0, 20 and 30 kg/ha) and three levels of zinc (0, 2.5 and 5.0 kg/ha). These treatments were evaluated in Randomized Block Design (factorial) with four replications. Results of the experiment revealed that seed yield and hulm yield were significantly influenced by different levels of potassium and zinc. The treatment K₂ (40 kg K₂O/ha) significantly increased seed yield (2334 kg/ha) and haulm yield (3767 kg/ha) of chickpea than other treatments except treatment K₁ (20 kg K₂O/ha) in case of haulm yield. Among different levels of zinc, significantly maximum seed yield (2251 kg/ha), haulm yield (3689 kg/ha) of chickpea were found under the treatment Z₂ (5.0 kg Zn/ha) which remained at par with the treatment Z₁ (2.5 kg Zn/ha). The interaction effect of different levels of potassium and zinc was significant seed yield (2504 kg/ha) was remarkably increased by the treatment combinations of K₂Z₂ (40 kg K₂O and 5.0 kg Zn/ha) than rest of the treatments excluding treatment combinations K₁Z₂ (20 kg K₂O and 5.0 kg Zn/ha) and K₂Z₁ (40 kg K₂O and 2.5 kg Zn/ha). The treatment K₂ (40 kg K₂O/ha) significantly increased the N, P, K and S contents in chickpea seed and haulm than other levels of potassium except treatment K₁ (20 kg K₂O/ha) in case of N and P contents in seed and N content in haulm. The Zn content in seed and haulm was significantly increased with treatment Z₂ (5.0 kg Zn/ha) and was remained at par with treatment Z₁ (2.5 kg Zn/ha). The overall results showed that combined application of K₂O at 40 kg/ha and zinc at 2.5 kg/ha found to be beneficial for achieving higher yield of chickpea as well as nutrient contents of chickpea.