Phenophasic development of wild Cicer species in relation to agroclimatic indices under rainfed and irrigated conditions

Abstract

The field study was conducted on six wild chickpea accessions to evaluate the influence of agroclimatic indices viz., accumulated growing degree days (GDD), photo-thermal unit (PTU) and heliothermal unit (PTU) at various phenophases of chickpea under irrigated and rainfed conditions on yield of the plant. C pinnatifidum 212 witnessed highest accumulation of heat units at all stages of phenophasic development under irrigated and rainfed conditions. Agroclimatic indices depicted positive correlation with yield under rainfed conditions.Path coefficient analysis revealed that under irrigated conditions, yield attributes and agroclimatic indices showed strong positive correlation towards the final grain yield, though HTU at maturity indirectly affected yield via pods per plant (PPP) to the final yield in rainfed treatment. Among all the accessions, C pinnatifidum 212 performed better than other accessions by possessing high heat use efficiency (HUE) values, thus displaying their capacity of utilizing GDD and incorporating final yield.