QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE IMPROVEMENT IN THE YIELD OF FIELD CULTIVATED CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L. CV. VIJAY) USING PEPTONE AND OXYGENATED PEPTONE UNDER ORGANIC FARMING CONDITION

Field experiments were conducted to study the impact of soil application of peptone and oxygenated peptone on organically grown chickpea (Cicer arietinum L. cv. Vijay). Both the treatments resulted in early flowering and early harvestation, increased number of pods/plant as well as fresh wt. and dry wt. of 100 pods and 100 seeds, with oxygenated peptone showing comparatively higher level. The crop yield was more under oxygenated peptone treatment than under peptone treatment condition. The seeds of peptone treatment showed upper hand as compared to oxygenated peptone in acidity, DNA content and IAA oxidase activity. On the other hand, soil application of oxygenated peptone led to more enhancements in biochemical constituents of seed like total solids, ash, moisture content, crude fiber content, soluble proteins, total carbohydrates, polyphenols, proline, total free amino acids, ascorbic acid and RNA content. This indicates better nutritional quality of seeds. The enzyme activity of catalase, peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, nitrate reductase and nitrite reductase showed upper hand under oxygenated peptone treatment. The overall picture shows that both peptone and oxygenated peptone were useful for the qualitative and quantitative enhancement in the yield of chickpea under organic farming condition. Oxygenated peptone is more useful in this respect.