Effects of organic and inorganic fertilizers on growth and yield of chickpea cultivars in dryland farming conditions

Considering the importance of organic fertilizers application and the necessity of minimizing the use of inorganic fertilizers, this experiment was conducted in order to study the possibility of replacing vermicompost and poultry manure instead of chemical fertilizers in the production of two improved chickpea cultivars under dryland conditions. The experiment was laid out in a factorial arrangement with randomized complete block design in three replications. The first factor was fertilizer with 6 levels including: F1 (control or without fertilizer), F2 (conventional chemical fertilizer or NPK), F3 (10 t/ha vermicompost), F4 (5 t/ha poultry manure), F5 (50% NPK+5 t/ha vermicompost), F6 (50% NPK+2.5 t/ha poultry manure) and the second factor was cultivar including Azad and Adel chickpea cultivars. The effect of fertilizer factor on the secondary branches number/plant, canopy temperature, pods number/plant, seed yield and biological yield was significant and the effect of cultivar factor on the plant height, the lowest pod height, SPAD index, 100-seed weight, seed and biological yields and harvest index was significant. The highest rates of seed yield and pods number/plant (1410 kg/ha and 42 pods/plant respectively) were recorded in F4 treatment (5 t/ha poultry manure) which were 24 and 32% higher than those of control treatment respectively. The means of secondary branches number/plant, pods number/plant, seed and biologic yield in four treatments containing organic fertilizers (F3, F4, F5 & F6) were higher than those of the inorganic fertilizer and the control treatments. Comparison of the two chickpea cultivars indicated that Azad cultivar showed a significant superiority for the most traits in comparison with Adel cultivar, and its seed yield was 13% higher than that of Adel cultivar. Regarding the improvement of chickpea growth and yield in organic fertilizer treatments, which in most cases had better results than the inorganic fertilizer these organic fertilizers can be considered as suitable alternatives for common chemical fertilizers in chickpea production under dryland conditions.