ABSTRACT

A field experiment was conducted to study the drought management in chickpea through foliar nutrition in the Northern Dry Zone of Karnataka during Rabi 2023-24 at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Vijayapura, Karnataka. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with fourteen treatments and three replications. Treatments included foliar spray of water, Urea @ 2%, KNO3 @ 0.5%, 19:19:19 @ 0.5 %, ZnSO4 @ 0.5%, Nano Urea @ 2 ml L-1and 4 ml L-1, Nano Zn @ 2 ml L-1 and 4 ml L-1 and various combinations of Nano Urea and Nano Zn at flower initiation and pod formation stages, compared with control (no spray). The results revealed that, foliar application of Nano Urea @ 4 ml L-1 + Nano Zn @ 4 ml L-1 at both stages produced significantly higher number of pods per plant (38), seed weight per plant (7.58 g), seed yield (1633 kg ha-1) and haulm yield (2205 kg ha-1) as compared to other treatments except Nano Urea @ 4 ml L-1 + Nano Zn @ 2 ml L-1. Significantly higher plant height (37.44 cm), total dry matter production (19.35 g plant-1), SPAD value (53.47), NDVI value (0.92), proline (7.01 m mol g-1 FW), total chlorophyll (6.17 mg g-1 FW) and net returns (`56055 ha-1) were recorded. The higher BC ratio (2.81) was recorded with Nano Urea @ 4 ml L-1 + Nano Zn @ 2 ml L-1, on par with Nano Urea @ 4 ml L-1 + Nano Zn @ 4 ml L-1. The lowest values were recorded in control treatment. These findings suggest that foliar application of Nano Urea @ 4 ml L-1 + Nano Zn @ 2-4 ml L-1 at flower initiation and pod formation stages along with RDF can effectively enhance chickpea yield and profitability under drought conditions.