Planting Density Affected Dry Matter Production, Partitioning, and Yield in Machine Harvestable Chickpea Genotypes in the Irrigated Ecosystem

The important causes for lack of improvement in production and low chickpea yields are inappropriate crop management, variety-based un-optimized planting density, variety not suitable for machine harvest and losses during harvesting operations. In this study, we hypothesized that increased planting density can compensate for the yield reduction in tall chickpea genotypes by accomodating more plants per unit area than existing genotypes and improving the plant architecture to facilitate mechanical harvesting. We analyzed variations among five genotypes (ICCV-11601, ICCV-11602, ICCV-11603, ICCV-11604 and JG-11) for dry matter production, partitioning, and yields in response to planting densities (33.3–46.6 plants m−2) at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Telangana, India. In general, higher dry matter production and partitioning was observed in the tall/erect genotypes than semi-erect genotype. The higher dry matter was produced by genotype ICCV-11604. In the case of planting density, an increase in planting density from 33.3 to 46.6 plants m−2 decreased the dry matter production and its partitioning in different parts. The normal planting density of 33.3 plants m−2 observed higher dry matter per plant. The interaction of JG-11 × 40% higher density of 46.6 plants m−2 recorded maximum seed yield (3048 kg ha−1). However, the tall genotype ICCV-11604 × 46.6 plants m−2 interaction recorded higher seed yield (2840 kg ha−1) than JG-11 × normal density of 33.3 plants m−2 (2666 kg ha−1). The increase in planting density could compensate for the yield reduction in tall chickpea genotypes and facilitate mechanical harvesting to reduce the drudgery on scarce labour and save time and cost.