Mitigating drought stress in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) through seed priming under late sown conditions

PRIYA .; S. R. DODDAGOUDAR; BASAVEGOWDA .; S. B. BELLAD; LAXUMAN .

doi:10.61475/JFS.2025.v38i4.35

PRIYA . Department of Seed Sciences & Technology, College of Agriculture, Raichur University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur -584 104, India
S. R. DODDAGOUDAR Department of Seed Sciences & Technology, College of Agriculture, Raichur University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur -584 104, India
BASAVEGOWDA . Department of Seed Sciences & Technology, College of Agriculture, Raichur University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur -584 104, India
S. B. BELLAD Department of Seed Sciences & Technology, College of Agriculture, Raichur University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur -584 104, India
LAXUMAN . Department of Seed Sciences & Technology, College of Agriculture, Raichur University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur -584 104, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61475/JFS.2025.v38i4.35

Keywords: Chickpea, Drought, Gibberellic acid, Salicylic acid, Seed priming, Seed yield

Abstract

A study on mitigating drought stress in chickpea through seed priming under late sown conditions was carried outduring rabi 2019-20 at the seed production block of ICAR-National Seed Project, Main Seed Unit, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur. The experiment consisted of ten treatments viz., T1: Control, T2: Hydro priming, T3: Seed priming with KNO3 (0.5%), T 4: Seed priming with KNO3 (1%), T5: Seed priming with GA3 (100 ppm), T 6: Seed priming with GA3 (150ppm), T7: Seed priming with SA (50 μM), T8: Seed priming with SA (100 μM), T 9: Seed priming with SNP (50 μM) and T 10: Seed priming with SNP (100 μM) which was laid out in randomized block design. The seeds were primed at 1:2 seedto solution ratio for 8 hours and evaluated for growth and yield parameters. The experimental results revealed that seedpriming with salicylic acid @ 100 μM recorded significantly higher number of primary branches per plant (3.7 and 3.8), leafarea index (2.808 and 1.494), chlorophyll content (59.8 and 45.0) at 60 DAS and harvest and plant population (160),number of pods per plant (22.0), 100 seed weight (18.9 g), seed yield per plant (3.9 g) and seed yield per hectare (1125.9kg) at harvest. While, gibberellic acid @ 150 ppm recorded significantly highest plant height (32.1 and 33.2) compared toall other treatments and control at 60 DAS and harvest.