Physiological responses and yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars under rainfed and supplemental irrigation conditions

Water deficit in rainfed conditions has adverse effects on the physiological characteristics of plants. To investigate the physiological responses of chickpea cultivars under rainfed and supplemental irrigation conditions, an experiment was conducted as a split-plot design based on a randomized complete block design with four replications. In this study, the main plots consisted of three irrigation regimes: rainfed, supplemental irrigation, and full irrigation. The subplots consisted of four chickpea cultivars: Azkan, Mansour, Adel, and Saeed. Physiological characteristics assessed during the growing season included leaf relative water content, electrolyte leakage, the activity of antioxidant enzymes catalase and peroxidase, proline and malondialdehyde content, and the amount of chlorophyll a, b, and total chlorophyll. The number of seeds per plant, hundred-seed weight, biological yield, and grain yield were also evaluated at the end of the growing season. The irrigation treatment showed a significant effect at the ۱% probability level on all traits studied. Under rainfed conditions, electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde and proline levels, as well as antioxidant enzyme activity, increased by ۳۲%, ۱۲۸%, and ۵۱۳%, respectively, compared to full irrigation conditions, while other investigated traits decreased. Among the cultivars, Mansour showed the highest grain yield (۱۸۵۰ kg/ha) under full irrigation conditions, while Adel showed the lowest yield under full and supplementary irrigation conditions (۱۰۹۳ and ۸۵۰ kg/ha, respectively). The cultivars showed similar yields under rainfed conditions. Supplemental irrigation improved the physiological performance of chickpea cultivars compared to rainfed conditions, which ultimately led to increased production and grain yield compared to rainfed conditions in chickpea cultivars. Under supplementary and full irrigation conditions, the Mansour cultivar had a higher seed yield than other cultivars and is suitable for these conditions.

کلیدواژه ها:

Antioxidant enzymes ، Proline ، Drought stress ، Grain yield ، Chlorophyll ، آنزیم های آنتی اکسیدان ، پرولین ، تنش خشکی ، عملکرد دانه ، کلروفیل