Performance Evaluation of Chickpea Varieties under Rainfed Condition of Dharmapuri District, Tamil Nadu, India

Chickpea is an important pulse crop grown during rabi season in black soil areas of Dharmapuri District. Among the various biotic and abiotic factors, the drought stress and fusarium wilt disease incidence are the major problems that reduces the chickpea yield to a greater extent. To overcome the above problems, the varieties viz., JAKI 9218 and GBM 2 were studied in comparison with farmers practice i.e., CO 4 for identification of suitable drought and disease tolerant high yielding variety for prevailing rainfed condition. The results revealed that JAKI 9218 and GBM 2 were found promising under rainfed condition and recorded the grain yield of 1008 and 933 kg/ha as compared to 808 kg/ha in CO 4. The variety JAKI 9218 proved to be superior with a yield increase of 24.7 per cent over CO 4 and 8.04 per cent over GBM 2. The pod borer and fusarium wilt disease incidence were lower in the variety JAKI 9218. The highest net income of Rs. 22158 /- and benefit cost ratio of 2.16 was realized in JAKI 9218 and the lowest net income of Rs. 13958 /- and benefit cost ratio of 1.77 was realized in farmers practice i.e., CO 4. It is concluded from the study that the chickpea variety JAKI 9218 can be recommended for large scale cultivation under rainfed condition of Dharmapuri district for realizing higher return by the farmers.