The Effect of Planting Date on the Growth and Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in Different Tillage Systems

Document Type : Scientific - Research

Authors

Shahram Choobtashani

Hassan Heidari

Mohammadeghbal Ghobadi

Department of Plant Production and Genetics Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Engineering, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

10.22067/agry.2026.100023.1278

Abstract

Introduction
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a self-pollinating, diploid, annual plant with a small genome and is the most important legume crop, ranking third globally and first among South Asian countries (Gaur et al., 2010). Shifting the chickpea sowing date from spring to autumn is a key strategy for increasing yield (Sadeghipour & Aghaei, 2012). Tillage is a crucial agricultural operation due to its impact on soil properties, the environment, and crop growth (Sharma et al., 2011). In a study examining the effects of various tillage systems and seed pre-treatments on rainfed chickpea, KhanPayeh and Jalilian (2013) found that the highest and lowest grain and biological yields were obtained under reduced tillage and no-tillage systems, respectively.

Materials and Methods
In order to investigate the effect of planting date on the growth and yield of rainfed chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in different tillage systems, an experiment was conducted in the 2021-2022 crop year in the organic farm of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Campus of Razi University of Kermanshah, in a split-plot design in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Three planting dates (including the first planting date (D1) 2021/12/18, the second planting date (D2) 2022/1/9, and the third planting date (D3) 2022/1/25) as subplots and different tillage systems as main plots (including three levels: 1- No-till treatment (T1): No-till plots that were carried out without any tillage operations; 2- Reducted tillage (T2): Reduced tillage plots included a protective plowing stage with a compound plow; 3- Conventional tillage (T3): Conventional tillage plots included a plowing stage with a rotary plow and a disk stage).

Results and Discussion
The results of this study showed that the highest plant height was related to T2×D1 (29.24 cm), and the lowest value of this trait was assigned to the T1×D2 and T1×D3 treatments, with values of 16 and 16 cm, respectively. Treatment T2×D2 had the highest number of pods in the main branch (3.67). Also, the lowest number of pods in the main branch was assigned to treatment T1×D2 (2.33). The highest percentage of green cover was assigned to treatment combinations T2×D1 and T2×D2, with values of 63 and 61.67 percent, respectively, and no significant difference was observed between these two treatments in terms of this trait. On the other hand, the lowest values of this trait were also observed in treatments T1×D1, T1×D2, and T1×D3 (44, 43.67, and 44.33 percent). On the other hand, the highest number of seeds in pods was related to the effect of low tillage treatment (1.67), and the lowest value of this trait was observed in the conventional tillage treatment unit. The highest average number of seeds per plant was observed in the combined treatment T2×D1 (27.77), and there was no significant difference between this treatment and the treatment combinations T2×D2 and T3×D1 (with values of 17.24 and 53.23, respectively). The lowest number of seeds per plant was also related to the treatment combination T1×D3 (17.12). The best treatment combination in terms of biological yield was related to T2×D1 and T2×D2 (2400 and 2233.33 kg.ha^-1), and there was no significant difference between these two treatment combinations in terms of biological yield, but the worst treatment combination for biological yield was attributed to the treatments T1×D1, T1×D2 and T1×D3 (with values of 1743.33, 1680 and 1690 kg.ha^-1, respectively). The highest grain yield values were observed in the T2×D1 and T2×D2 treatment combinations (67.984 and 33.974), which were reported as the best treatments in terms of grain yield. The lowest grain yield was observed in the T1×D1, T1×D2, and T1×D3 treatment combinations, with values of 696, 33.665, and 67.656 kg.ha^-1, respectively, which were considered the worst treatment combinations in terms of yield in the present study.

Conclusion
Based on the present findings, it can be said that the best treatment combination was the first planting date in the reduced tillage system. On this date, along with the reduced tillage treatment, more green cover is produced, which is equal to increased amounts of yield components and yield, and the results of this study confirm this claim.

Keywords

Conventional tillage

No-tillage

Planting time

Reduced tillage

Subjects

• Sustainable agriculture and food production systems

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Authors retain the copyright. This is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)

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