Use of Conservation Technology for the Improvement in Production of Chickpea in Comparison to Wheat

Abstract

In the last four decades, the area, production and productivity of chickpea fluctuated widely. There is a general perception that chickpea is a rabi crop and requires low temperature and prolonged winter season thus more fit for cultivation in northern India. Chickpea area was earlier confined to northern and central India. However, the scenario of chickpea cultivation has drastically changed in India during the past few decades. Pulses have very low productivity due to several reasons. However, the obvious reasons are cultivation under energy starved conditions on marginal and sub-marginal lands with no or low input management, late sowing, higher degree of susceptibility to both abiotic and biotic stresses, unavailability of quality seeds of high yielding varieties, poor or no use of plant protection measures, improper management practices, lack of winter precipitation and inadequacy of stored soil moisture, etc. Wheat is the world’s number one cereal crop in all the six continents of the world. It is the staple food of billions of people and is widely treated as cash crop because it produce good yield per unit area in short growing season. Similarly, chickpea is an important pulse crop of the semi-arid tropics, particularly in the rainfed area of the Indian sub-continent. Conservation technology plays important role to increase the productivity of wheat. Keeping the above in considerations try to know the role of conservation technology for the increase in the production of chickpea in comparison to wheat in this paper.