Yield Performance of Improved Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) Varieties under Pure Stand and Banana Intercrop Methods in Semi-Arid Agroecological Zone of South Western Uganda

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is increasingly becoming an important crop inEast Africa due to its desirable attributes such as high drought tolerance, nitrogen fixation, grain/seed productivity, and market potential. Chickpea is a major source of high quality protein for human diets and has potential of bridging the nutritional gap among rural households during drought periods. With the aim of improving household income in South Western Uganda, National Agricultural Advisory Services introduced several chickpea varieties between 2004 and 2007 in the zone targeting a local agro-producer processor. However, due to the limited capacity of the processor to buy all chickpea produce, most farmers abandoned the crop since there was no other alternative use or markets known. Apart from lack of market, chickpea has the potential to improve nutrition among the vulnerable rural households if its production and consumption are enhanced. Due to chickpea ability to improve soil fertility, and survive under low moisture conditions where other common crops cannot survive, it can also be a source of food especially in period when there is food scarcity. Although, Chickpea had great potential of being adopted in the region, its agronomic performance (grain yields) and adaptability to the existing cropping systems in the semi-arid zone of South Western Uganda is not known. Therefore, this research was conducted to ascertain the potential yields and appropriate cropping method, which will result into higher productivity. Farmer participatory research was conducted to assess grain yields of five improved chickpea varieties (ICCV 96329, ICCV 00305, ICCV 97105, ICCV 92318 and ICCV 00108) using banana-intercrop and pure stand cropping methods. Eighty nine farmers hosted the experiment on behalf of the How to cite this paper: Muzira, R., Kankwatsa, P. and Byenkya, S. (2018) community. Results indicated that there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in grain yields among the chickpea varieties. However, grain yields from chickpea planted as pure stand were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that obtained from banana-intercrop. This implies that competition with banana for moisture, nutrient and light significantly suppressed the yielding potential of chickpea in the banana intercrop.

Biochemical and biophysical responses against Helicoverpa armigera Hub. (Noctuidae: Lepidoptera) in chickpea

“…Using 100% ethanol, the total dehydration completed over the period of 30 minutes. After the samples had dried to a critical point in CO2 at 5 °C, they were mounted on aluminium stubs using two-sided carbon tape (Muzira et al, 2018) [14] . The samples were then analysed and captured using a scanning electron microscope with a secondary electron detector operating at a 15 kV increasing voltage.…”