Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(11): 2882-2886 2882 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.911.348 Effect of Iron and Zinc Levels on Growth and Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Sunnam Hemanth Kumar * , Joy Dawson, Pole Shiva Kiran and V. Varsha Vyas Department of Agronomy, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) belongs to the genus Cicer species arietinum and family fabaceae. It is an important cool season pulse crop and is also called as Bengal gram. In terms of pulse production, India contributes about 25% to the global pulses production (Pooniya and Pithia, 2015). In India Chickpea is premier pulse crop grown on an area of 106 lakhs/ha during 2017-18. India harvested a record production of more than 112 lakh tons with productivity of 1063 kg/ha. The main chickpea producing states are Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh has cultivated an area of 5.01 Lakh/ ha and contributed 5.79 l/ha production (MoA 2017-2018). Iron is the most important micronutrient for chickpea crop. It plays a crucial role in redox system in cell and various enzymes. Dicotyledons and graminaceous plants have different strategies to acquire iron (Marschner, 2012). Iron (F e ) is present at high quantities in soils but its availability to plants is usually low and therefore F e deficiency is common problem (Nozoye et al., 2011). It helps in formation of chlorophyll and its an important constituent of enzyme nitrogenase, which is essential for nitrogen fixation. It has an essential role in nucleic acid metabolism. It International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 11 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The field experiment was conducted during rabi season comprised of ten treatments viz. with Iron at 3.0,4.5and 6.0 kg/ha, Zinc 2.0,3.0 and 4.0 kg/ha and control (20:40:20) NPK kg/ha. And the experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design. Application of Iron and Zinc significantly influenced the growth parameters, yield attributing characters and yield over control. Application of 6 kg FeSO 4 + 4 kg ZnSO 4 recorded highest Plant height (43.33 cm), Number of nodules (29.75), Number of branches (11.25) per plant and Dry weight (18.41 g), whereas, application of 6 kg FeSO 4 + 3 kg ZnSO 4. recorded maximum seed yield (2457.15 kg/ha) and Benefit cost ratio (2.17). Keywords Chickpea, Iron, Zinc, Growth, and Yield attributes Accepted: 20 October 2020 Available Online: 10 November 2020 Article Info