Effect of Variety and Planting Density on Growth and Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in River Nile State, Northern Sudan

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the third most important grain legume and human dietary food in Sudan. Therefore, an experiment was conducted during two seasons (2009/010 and 2010/011) at Hudeiba Research Station Farm, latitude 17 34 N, longitude 33 56 E, altitude 355 asl in the semi desert climate of northern Sudan. The soil of the experimental site is moderately fertile clay soil belongs to the so - called Karu middle terrace soils. Sowings were performed in the mid of November. The objective was to study the effects of variety and planting density on growth and yield of irrigated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L). Two chickpea varieties, namely, FLIP-98- 55C (erect) and Hawata (semi- erect) were sown at five planting densities, viz: 17, 22, 33, 44 and 66 plants/ square m equivalent to 17000, 22000, 33000, 44000 and 66000 plants/h. The treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design and replicated three times. The results indicated highly significant variety effects (P 0.00l) and significant planting density and interaction effects (P 0.05) on chickpea growth parameters and yield in both seasons. Hawata was earlier in days to 50 % flowering than FLIP- 98- 55C by 17 and 11 days in the first and the second season, respectively. FLIP - 98 - 55C had taller plants and longer distance to the first pod in both seasons. On the other hand, plant height and the distance to the first pod, number of pods and seeds per square meter were significantly increased with increased planting density. In contrast, increasing planting density from 17 to 66 plants/ square m decreased plant width, number of branches, number of pods and number of seeds/ plant in the two seasons. The two varieties varied significantly in seed yield. Hawata exhibited higher seed yield (3559 kg/ha) and out-yielded FLIP-98-55C (1989) by 53 % and 101 % in the two second seasons. The superiority of Hawata in seed yield over FLIP-98-55C was mainly due to higher number of branches, pods and seeds /plant; however, FLIP98-55C gave significantly higher 100- seed weight than Hawata in both seasons. Significant interaction effects of variety by planting density were detected for most chickpea measured characters in the two seasons. In conclusion, high seed yields of chickpea ranging from 2592 to 2993 kg/ha and from 2435 to 3289 kg/ha were obtained in the first and second season, respectively. However, the highest seed yields of chickpea (3050 and 3429 kg/ha) were given by 33 plants/ square m Therefore, it was recommended that to obtain high seed yield of chickpea in northern Sudan the crop could be sown at 33 plants/m2 achieved by sowing chickpea at 60 and 10 cm inter and intra- plant spacing with two seeds/hole and equivalent to 25 kg/fed seed rate