Modern Agronomic Practices for Chickpea Cultivation

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) popularly known as ¿Gram¿ or ¿Bengal gram¿ is the most important and premier pulse crop of India. Chickpea belongs to the family of Leguminosae, is the third most important pulse crop of the world and India is the largest producer country. Chickpea plays a greater role in national food and nutritional security and sustaining the economy of the farming community in a variety of ways. As a result of stagnated production and continuous increase in population, the per capita availability of pulses has decreased considerably. Since very little scope exists for horizontal expansion of the area, the alternative seems to be by adopting innovative agronomic practices like nipping, selection of proper seed rate, and variety for a set of agro-climatic conditions to overcome from decreasing production potential.