Journal of Experimental Agriculture International

The present field experiment was conducted to study the effect of agronomic biofortification of zinc and iron on chickpea during Rabi season of 2021-22 and 2022-23 at the instructional farm, College of Agriculture, Jodhpur. The field experiment was laid out in split plot design comprised two varieties of chickpea (‘GNG-2144’ and ‘GNG-2171’) and three levels of iron fortification treatment including control (F₀), 20 kg FeSO₄ (SA) + 0.5 % FeSO₄ (F₁) and 25 kg FeSO₄ (SA) + 0.5 % FeSO₄ (F₃) in the main plot and four-levels of zinc fortification viz. control (Z₀), ZSB (SI) + 15 kg ZnSO₄ (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO₄ (Z₁), ZSB (SI) + 20 kg ZnSO₄ (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO₄ (Z₂) and ZSB (SI) + 25 kg ZnSO₄ (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO₄ (Z₃) in sub-plot. These three experimental variables make twenty-four treatment combinations were taken as experimental factors to study their effect on biofortification in chickpea. The results revealed that variety GNG-2144 recorded higher plant height and higher seed yield over variety GNG-2171. Among Iron levels treatment 25 kg FeSO₄ (SA) + 0.5 % FeSO₄ (F₃) significantly recorded higher seed yield as compare to 20 kg FeSO₄ (SA) + 0.5 % FeSO₄ (F₁). Moreover, Zinc fortification treatment ZSB (SI) + 25 kg ZnSO₄ (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO₄ (Z₃) was found significantly superior over the treatment ZSB (SI) + 15 kg ZnSO₄ (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO₄ (Z₁) and at par with ZSB (SI) + 20 kg ZnSO₄ (SA) + 0.5 % ZnSO₄ (Z₂).