Yield and Quality Response of Chickpea to Different Sowing Dates

A field experiment was conducted at the Agronomy research field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from November 2015 to June 2016 to observe the effect of sowing dates on yield and quality of chickpea. The study aimed at finding out yield and quality response of two varieties of chickpea (BARI Chola-5 and BARI Chola-9), at five different sowing dates viz. November 05, November 20, December 05, December 20 and January 04. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three replications. The results of two varieties revealed significant variations in days to flowering, maturity, number of grains per plant, number of seeds per grain, the weight of 1000 seeds, grain yield, stover yield, biological yield and harvest index due to different sowing dates. Early and delayed sowings affected the chickpea yield and the quality of grain. Physiological responses of chickpea were also greatly influenced by different sowing dates that affect the proper growth and development of chickpea plants. In case of varieties, significant variation was observed in all parameters, here, BARI Chola-9 showed better performance than BARI Chola-5. BARI Chola-9 sown on November 20 produced maximum grain yield (2.40 t/ha) and the lowest grain yield (1.23 t/ha) was found in BARI Chola-5 sown on January 04. Irrespective of variety, early and delayed sowings showed lower performance on all parameters, significantly affected the yield and quality of chickpea.