Effect of Organic Manures and Inorganic Fertilizers on Growth and Yield of Chickpea (Cicer Arietinum L.) under Moringa Agroforestry System

Cultivating agricultural crops and trees together is an ancient practice world-wide. Agroforestry refers to the sustainable land use systems involving trees combined with arable crops or animals on the same unit of land in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. Agroforestry is recognized as one of the supreme strategies to attain ideal multiple benefits, through interactive and intentional land use system and technologies where trees are deliberately planted with agricultural crops or with animals. In India, it has been a traditional practice and has received greater emphasis in recent years as a sustainable land use option of high potential. In agroforestry systems there are both ecological and economical interactions between the different components (Lundgren and Raintree, 1982). Agroforestry systems have been designed to fulfill the economic, social and cultural needs of the local population, while keeping an eye on the ecological balance. To increase the economic importance of the tree component, the multipurpose tree species (MPTS) have been introduced in agroforestry systems. The multipurpose trees are those trees and shrubs having more than one preferred use, product and/or service.

Moringa oleifera is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree of the family Moringaceae, native to the Indian subcontinent. Common names include moringa, drumstick tree It is widely cultivated for its young seedpods and leaves, used as vegetables and for traditional herbal medicine. It is also used for water purification. Although listed as an invasive species in several countries, M. oleifera has "not been observed invading intact habitats or displacing native flora", so "should be regarded at present as a widely cultivated species with low invasive potential.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)It is an important pulse crop with synonym Bengal gram, garbanzo (Spanish), chana (Hindi) and chanaka (Sanskrit). It is the largest produced food legume in South Asia and the third largest produced food legume globally, after the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)and field pea (Pisum sativum L.). India is the largest chickpea producing country accounting for 64% of the global chickpea production. The other major chickpea producing countries include Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Myanmar, Australia, Ethiopia, Canada, Mexico and Iraq. It is grown in an about 30% of the national pulse acre which contributes to about 38% of national pulse production in India. The total production of this crop has increased from 3.65million tonnes in 1950-51 to 5.77 million tonnes in 2003-04 registering a quite low growth rate of 0.58% annually in the area under cultivation (a decline from 7.57 to 7.29 million hectares) with an increased productivity from 482 to 792 kg/ha, the global chickpea area was about 11.0 m ha with a production of 8.8 mtons and average yield of nearly 800 kg ha-1 (Gaur et al., 2010). Pulses occupy avery important place in Indian diet because they constitute the major source of protein to the predominantly vegetarian population Nutritionally, Chickpea is relatively free from various anti nutritional factors, has a high protein digestibility, and is richer in phosphorus and calcium than other pulses. Because of its higher fat content and better fiber digestibility, chickpea holds good promise as a protein and calorie source for animal feed. Chickpea straw also has a forage value. Because of these diversified uses of the crop and its ability to grow better with low inputs under harsh edaphic factors, it is an important component of the cropping system of subsistence farmers in the Indian subcontinent.