Study of Growth Performance of Chickpea in Agricultural Soil of Katsina, Nigeria

The plant growth performance of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in agricultural soil of Katsina state amended with different levels of farmyard manure (10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% and 100%) was studied. The plant growth performance in terms of length of shoot and root, fresh weight of shoot and root, dry weight of shoot and root, leaf number and branch number was increased significantly up to 50%, and then decreased gradually in the rest of levels. The highest growth was observed at 50% (root length = 26.0 cm, shoot length = 15.0 cm, root fresh wt. = 2.87 g, shoot fresh wt. = 4.89 g, root dry wt. = 0.60 g, shoot dry wt. = 0.92 g, number of leaves = 153, number of branch = 19 and number of nodules = 00) farmyard manure level. The lowest growth performance was observed in control (root length = 10.0 cm, shoot length = 6.2 cm, root fresh weight = 1.04 g, shoot fresh weight = 1.89 g, root dry weight = 0.15 g, shoot dry weight 0.19 g, number of leaf = 20, number of branch = 4 and number of nodules = 00).