EFFECTS OF INTER-ROW AND INTRA - ROW SPACING ON GROWTH, YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF CHICKPEA (Cicer arietinum L.) AT FUNYAN DIIMO AREA, CHIRO DISTRICT, WEST HARARGHE, ETHIOPIA

One of the basic agronomic practices to improve the yield potential of chickpea is identification of optimum plant spacing. Thus, field experiment was conducted to assess the effect of inter-row and intra-row spacing on the growth, yield components and yield of chickpea at Chiro District. The treatment consisted of four inter- row (20, 30, 40 and 50 cm) and four intra- row (5, 10,15 and 20 cm) spacing. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in factorial arrangement with three replications. The main effect of inter-row and intra- row spacing showed highly significant effect on days to 50% flowering and physiological maturity. The highest days to 50% flowering (66.00 days) and days to physiological maturity (106.5 days) were recorded at 50 cm inter-row spacing. On the other hand, at 20 cm intra-row spacing, the highest days to 50% flowering (65.17 days) and days to physiological maturity (108 days) were recorded. The main effects of intra-row and inter-row spacing were significant on plant height. The tallest plant height (50.54 cm) under inter-row spacing was recorded at 20 cm, whereas the tallest (50.88 cm) under intra-row spacing was obtained at 5 cm. The 40 x15 cm, 40 x 20 cm and 50 x20cm produced the highest number of primary branches (5.500) and 50cm x20cm produced highest number (11.60) of secondary branches per plant respectively, while the lowest number of primary branch (2.667) and secondary branch (4.93) were scored under the same 20 x 5 cm and 20 x 5 cm respectively. Stand count at harvest was increased from 86.63% to 95.30% as intra-row spacing increased from 5 to 20 cm respectively. The 50 x 20 cm spacing produced the highest number of pods (89.00) per plant and number of seeds (1.867) per pod. The highest hundred seed weight of 29.64 g and 28.71 g were recorded at 50 cm inter-row and 20 cm intra-row spacing respectively. The highest seed yield (3888 kg ha-1) was recorded under 40 cm inter-row with 15 cm intra- row spacing.