Nutritional status and susceptibility of advanced chickpea germplasm to low soil Zinc and Boron

Shoot samples at pre-flowering stage and grains at maturity from four replicated field trials on advanced germplasm of chickpea along with some of the commercial varieties were collected. Three trials consisted of Desi germplasm with 12, 12, and 8 entries while the fourth one had 11 entries of Kabuli material. The advanced lines appeared to be highly promising as they gave maximum increase over the old check varieties in grain yield upto 60 percent in first trial followed by 58 percent in second, 53 percent in third and 43 percent in the 4th one. On the overall basis, the whole germplasm under study contained sufficient B and Cu, while Zn and P (in grain) were marginal if not deficient. Almost all the material had relatively higher B in the grain than that of cereals like wheat. After field survey, a follow up soil pot culture study was conducted employing 5 varieties and 2 lines on a soil with marginal Zn and B. Variety 6153 responded to 5 mg kg-1 Zn application by 39, CM 72 by 26, NIFA 95 by 17 and mutant CM 1571-1-A by 11 percent, while remaining responded negligibly. Mutant CM 31-1 responded to 1 mg kg-1 B application by 30, CM 1571-1-A, C 44 and 6153 shared the response by 27 percent. Remaining three did not respond or responded negatively. All the entries in the four trials contained marginal Zn, i.e., less than 20 mg kg-1 and sufficient B, i.e., less than 30 mg kg-1, yet some of them responded to the applications markedly indicating their high B and Zn requirement than reported in the literature.