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Effect of Phosphorus Fertilizer Levels on Yield and Yield Component of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Varieties: The Case of West Showa Zone, Ejersa Lafo, Ethiopia

Chala Chalchissa, Habtamu Ashagire, Ibrahim Hamza

Chickpea is one of the most important staple pulse crops in Ethiopia. However, its productivity is constrained by a number of problems out of which fertilizer rates and varieties are the most important ones. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted in 2016 cropping season to determine the performance of different chickpea varieties under varied phosphorus levels in Ejersa Lafo, Ethiopia. Treatments consisted of four chickpea varieties (Dalota, Teketay, Natoli and Local check) and four phosphorus rates (0, 23, 46 and 69 kg P₂O₅ ha-1) arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications in a factorial fashion of 4 × 4 × 3 arrangement. The data thus obtained were subjected to the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique by using Statistical Application Software (SAS 9.4) and treatment means were separated by using Duncan test at 5% significance. The results revealed that the main effect of both phosphorus rates and varieties were highly significant (P<0.001) on number of pods per plant, thousand seed weight and biological yield. Statistically significant interaction effect of phosphorus rates and varieties was recorded for number of seed per pod and grain yield. Significantly higher grain yield (2945 kg ha-1) was obtained for Teketay variety with application of 46 kg P₂O₅ ha-1, while the local variety with zero application recorded the lowest grain yield. Therefore, Teketay variety with application of 46 kg P₂O₅ ha^-1 is recommended for obtaining higher yield of chickpea.