@article{icrisat11134,
           month = {March},
           title = {Changing Plant Architecture and Density can Increase Chickpea Productivity and Facilitate for Mechanical Harvesting},
       publisher = {Springer},
          author = {U Singh and P M Gaur and S K Chaturvedi and K K Hazra and G Singh},
           pages = {1--10},
            year = {2019},
            note = {The authors acknowledge the financial support received from Department of Agricultural Cooperation \& Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India under the National Food Security Mission project ?Developing chickpea cultivars suited to mechanical harvesting and tolerant to herbicides?.},
         journal = {International Journal of Plant Production (TSI)},
        keywords = {Chickpea, Planting geometry, Mechanical harvesting, First pod height, Yield},
             url = {http://oar.icrisat.org/11134/},
        abstract = {Tall and erect chickpea cultivar HC 5 (Haryana Chana 5) was primarily bred for inter-cropping with autumn planted sugarcane. Cultivar HC 5 is distinctly different in morphology from traditional bushy or semi-spreading chickpea cultivars and it is found suitable for machine harvesting. However, a general recommended planting density (30 cm {$\times$} 10 cm) is being followed for cv. HC 5 as well. In this study, we hypothesized that high-density planting can improve crop productivity and also improve the plant architecture for mechanical harvesting. To test this hypothesis, four plant spacing treatments (30 cm {$\times$} 10 cm, 30 cm {$\times$} 7.5 cm, 22.5 cm {$\times$} 10 cm, and 22.5 cm {$\times$} 7.5 cm) were evaluated in two chickpea cultivars (HC 5 and JAKI 9218) for crop growth, grain yield and the desirable plant traits for mechanical harvesting. The highest grain yield of cv. HC 5 was observed with 22.5 cm {$\times$} 10 cm spacing that increased the grain yield by 9\% (p {\ensuremath{<}} 0.05) over plant spacing of 30 cm {$\times$} 10 cm (conventional); this indicates that high-density planting could increase the productivity of the cv. HC 5. Where grain yield of cv. JAKI 9218 was reduced (p {\ensuremath{<}} 0.05) with the increase in planting density over 30 cm {$\times$} 10 cm. Increased grain yield of cv. HC 5 with 22.5 cm {$\times$} 10 cm spacing over 30 cm {$\times$} 10 cm was mainly attributed to increase in plant density (33\%); however, all the plant attributes (primary branch, secondary branch, pod plant?1) were reduced as compared to plant spacing of 30 cm {$\times$} 10 cm. The decrease in intra-row spacing of cv. HC 5 resulted in a strong adverse effect on plant growth and yield parameters as compared to inter-row spacing and thus not recommended. High-density planting increased the plant height (erectness) and ground clearance of cv. HC 5 (height of first pod) ({\texttt{\char126}} 30 cm), an essential prerequisite for mechanical harvesting, but not in cv. JAKI 9218. Hence, cv. HC 5 requires a dense planting for higher yield and appropriate plant structure for mechanical harvesting. Therefore, it is recommended to work out the optimum planting geometry/plant population to realize the potential yield of cultivars bred for mechanical harvesting.}
}