Crop Res. 36 (1, 2 & 3) : 67-70 (2008) Printed in India Response of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) to sources and levels of sulphur in salt affected rainfed soil of eastern Uttar Pradesh A. YADAV, A. S. YADAV, M. K. UPADHYAY, R. PRAKASH AND HARDEV RAM Department of Agronomy N. D. University of Agriculture & Technology, Kumarganj, Faizabad-224 229 (U. P.), India ABSTRACT An experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2005-06 to study the response of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) to sources and levels of sulphur in salt affected rainfed soil of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The differences between gypsum and elemental sulphur were registered non-significant in respect of yield attributes, yield and root characteristics of chickpea. Sulphur 30 kg/ha proved superior to rest of levels in increasing dry matter accumulation, yield attributes, yields and protein content. Root length and number of nodules/plant were recorded highest with 30 kg S/ha. The highest net return (Rs. 26509/ ha) and benefit : cost ratio (1.98 : 1) were recorded under the treatment of elemental sulphur with 30 kg/ha. Key words : Chickpea, economics, rainfed, root studies, sulphur, yield INTRODUCTION Sulphur deficiency is widespread in Indian soils. The total sulphur content of Indian soil varies considerably ranging from 19 to 4000 ppm. Elemental sulphur encourages greater population of sulphur oxidizing micro-organisms and improves oxidizing power of soil upon their addition in the soils. The acidity produced by elemental sulphur is beneficial in the treatment of salt affected soil and high pH soil (Tisdale et al., 1985). Sulphur application at the higher rates increases the yield, yield attributes and nodulation in chickpea (Sarkar et al., 1994). It is associated with the synthesis of vitamins, metabolism of carbohydrates, oilds and promotes the nodulation in legumes. MATERIALS AND METHODS A field experiment was conducted at Agronomy Research Farm of the N. D. University of Agriculture & Technology, Kumarganj, Faizabad during rabi season of 2005-06. The soil of experimental field was alkaline in reaction (pH 8.4), low in organic carbon (0.32%) and available nitrogen ( 172.48 kg/ha), medium in phosphorus (14.50 kg/ha) and rich in potassium (248.60 kg/ha) and sulphur (11.20 kg/ha). The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. The treatments comprised two sulphur sources (S 1 –Gypsum; S 2 –Elemental sulphur) and five levels (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 kg S/ha). Chickpea variety K-850 was sown on 18 October 2005 at rows 45 cm apart, using seed @ 100 kg/ha, nitrogen (16 kg/ha) and phosphorus (40 kg P 2 O 5 /ha) were applied through diammonium phosphate (DAP). Sulphur was applied through gypsum and elemental sulphur as per treatments as basal application. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION It is evident from the data given in Table 1 that the sources of sulphur showed significant effect on dry matter accumulation at 60, 90, 120 DAS and at harvest stage, except at 30 DAS. The significantly dry matter accumulation was recorded with the gypsum source of sulphur than elemental sulphur at all the stages of crop growth. The sulphur levels significantly affected the dry matter accumulation at all the stages of crop growth. The maximum dry matter accumulation was recorded with 30 kg S/ha, which was at par with 40 kg S/ha and significantly superior over rest of the levels at all the stages of crop growth. Mandal et al. (2003) also found the same results. All the yield attributes viz., pods/plant, grains/plant, grain weight/plant, test weight, grain and straw yield did not register significant effect with sulphur sources. The pods/plant, grains/plant, grain weight/plant and test