Physiological traits and productivity of rainfed chickpea in relation to urea spray and genotypes

A field experiment was carried out to study the effect of three concentrations of urea @ 0.25, 0.50 and 1.0% as foliar spray at 45 and 65 days after sowing against control on three chickpea genotypes namely KDG-1168, Udai and Awarodhi during rabi 2005–06 and 2006–07 under rainfed condition. At 50% flowering stage, nitrate reductase activity (NRA), relative water content (RWC) and chlorophyll content were estimated and found maximum with 1.0% urea spray. All the genotypes significantly improved their NRA, RWC and chlorophyll content in leaf with increase in urea concentrations upto 1.0%. Plant height, l000-seed weight and harvest index also improved significantly upto 1.00%. Number of branches-1 plant showed significant increase only upto 0.5% urea spray. Whereas seed yield of all genotypes increased upto 1.00% urea spray. Among genotypes, ‘Awarodhi’ was found significantly superior followed by ‘Udai’ in almost all characters studied.