Nitrogen yield and nitrogen use of chickpea compared to pea, barley and oat in Central Europe

European agriculture suffers from a substantial deficit of protein sources forlivestock and the projected changes in agro-climatic conditions in Central Europeinclude a higher risk of drought. To address these challenges, the drought resistantlegume crop chickpea was compared with pea, barley and oat regarding its nitrogen(N) yield, protein yield and N use and utilization efficiency under CentralEuropean growing conditions. The two year trial was conducted in eastern Austriawith calcium ammonium nitrate or the depot fertilizer Basacote® Plus 6M at twolevels of N rate each besides an unfertilized control. In 2006, chickpea had thelowest grain yield and grain N yield among the four crops while under droughtconditions in 2007 chickpea attained a higher grain protein yield that surpassedthose of barley and oat. Under both, the more humid conditions in 2006 and thedrier weather in 2007, chickpea maintained a constant partial factor N useefficiency (PFNUE: grain yield per unit fertilizer N) and a consistently high Nutilization efficiency (NUtE: grain yield per unit N in the above-ground dry matter)for grain production whereas these parameters were severely decreased by droughtwith pea, barley and oat. Results indicate that chickpea could be an alternative in afuture more dry climate for achieving a reasonable protein yield in Central Europethrough its ability to maintain high PFNUE and NUtE under conditions of drought.

Keywords:

Chickpea , Nitrogen use , Calcium ammonium nitrate , Basacote® Plus 6M , Protein yield , Central Europe