Effect of fertility levels and biofertilizers on the productivity and profitability of chickpea (Cicer arietinum)

A field experiment was conducted during winter (rabi) season of 2016–17 at Chandra Sekhar Azad University of Agriculture & Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh to evaluate the effect of fertility levels and biofertilizers on productivity and profitability of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). The treatments comprised of 4 fertility levels of [F₁ (control), F₂ (RDF 100%), F₃ (75% RDF), F₄ (50% RDF)] in the main-plots and 3 bio-fertilizer levels of [B₁ (Rhizobium + PSB), B₂ (Rhizobium + PGPR) and B₃ (Rhizobium + PSB + PGPR)] in sub-plots 3 times replicated split-plot design. The results showed that application of 100% RDF significantly enhanced the yield attributes, yield and net returns over the other treatments. Among the biofertilizer treatments application of Rhizobium + PSB + PGPR recorded significantly higher yield attributes, yield, net returns and benefit: cost ratio compared to other treatments. The combined application of 100% RDF with Rhizobium + PSB + PGPR resulted in significantly higher seed yield, gross return, net return and B: C ratio of chickpea over other combinations.