Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a highly valuable leguminous crop; it contains rich proteins, dietary fiber, complex carbohydrates, and vitamins. Unfortunately, chickpea plant growth and productivity are significantly impaired due to multiple environmental factors during cultivation. Therefore, exploring cost-effective and sustainable strategies is crucial for sustainable chickpea production. The study aimed to explore the potential of chickpea seed priming using moringa (Moringa oleifera) and neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf extracts for improving growth, production, and physiological performance of chickpea in field conditions. This study shows seed priming with moringa and neem leaf extracts significantly improves plant physiological performance. Seed priming with 3% moringa leaf extract showed a significant positive effect on chickpea performance on different physiological and yield parameters. At the flowering phase, the BARI Chola-11 variety with 3% moringa extract (V3P3) showed the highest grain yield (1.69 t ha-1), which was 61% greater than the lowest yield performance. Furthermore, this treatment significantly increases stover yield (2.61 t ha-1), pod number per plant (44), pod length (2.41 cm), and 1000-seed weight (228.33 g) in chickpea. Interestingly, moringa extract-based priming increased the grain yield by 18.4% compared to the control, whereas neem leaf extract-based priming increased the grain yield by 8.8%. The findings together indicate that Moringa leaf extract is effective for improving chickpea, suggesting that Moringa extract can be used as a potential biostimulant for enhancing growth, yield, plant fitness, and stress tolerance in Chickpea and other legumes.

Key words: Cicer arietinum L., Seed priming, Eco-friendly agriculture, Biostimulants