WEED CONTROL EFFICIENCY PRODUCTIVITY AND ECONOMICS OF CHICKPEA INFLUENCED BY PLANTING GEOMETRY UNDER NEW ALLUVIAL ZONE OF WEST BENGAL INDIA

A field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2020-2021 and 2021-22 at District Seed Farm (AB Block), Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya to study the consequences of varied planting geometry for crop-weed interventions in Chickpea (Cicer areitinum L.) under new alluvial zone of West Bengal. The treatment consisted with three inter row spacing (30 cm, 40 cm and 50 cm) combined with five intra-row spacing (10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm, 40 cm and 50 cm). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with twelve treatments with each treatment replicated thrice. Planting geometry with various combinations of inter- and intra- row spacing had significant effect on growth, yield, weed control and economics of chickpea cultivation. The highest plant height (70.17 cm) and plant population (31.66 m-2) was achieved from the treatment with 30 cm inter- and 10 cm intra- row spacing. Wider spacing of 50 cm inter- row and 50 cm intra- row showed significantly highest number of primary branches per plant (5.47), secondary branches per plant (14.83), number of pods plant-1 (91.98), number of seeds pod-1 (1.33) and seed weight (15.37 g.). Significantly the highest (1500.70 kg ha-1) seed yield was obtained with 30 cm inter- and 10 cm intra- row spacing where the lowest (709.65 kg ha-1) seed yield was found in 50 cm inter- and 50 cm intra-row spacing. Following the same result treatment combination with 30 cm inter- and 10 cm intra-row spacing had significantly highest weed control efficiency (63.63%) over others. Lowest Weed Index (9.98%) was found in 40 cm inter- and 10 cm intrarow spacing and highest (52.71%) with 50 cm inter- and 50 cm intra- row spacing respectively. Highest benefit-cost ratio (2.45) was achieved from the treatment with 30 cm inter- and 10 cm intra-row spacing. Thus, 30 cm inter- and 10 cm intra- row spacing can be recommended for chickpea production.