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Table 3
Sowing times, rates and varieties for the main districts.
Main district Sewing time Seed rate Varieties
(kg/ha)
Mianwali, Bar.ru,
D.I. Khan, Kohat
Attock and Jhelum.
Sargodha. Faisalabad,
Sahiwal, Multan and
Baawalhagar.
Mid-Sept to
mid-Oct
80 C 727, C 612, C 12/34, local
Mid-Sept to
end of Oct 80 Pb7, C612, C727-
Jacobabad, Sukkar Oct to early Nov 100 Local, Sanyasi, Sindhi White
Larkana and Khairpur Oct to Nov 100 Local
legumes, although phosphatic fertilizer is recommended at the rate of 50 kg
P20/ha. It is usually broadcast.
Almost all the chickpea cultivars grown in the country are susceptible to pests
and diseases, specially the pod borer, wilt and blight. The most important disease
found in Pakistan is blight (Ascochyta rabiei). Amongst the pests, the most
domaging ones are pod borcr (Heliothis armigera),cut worm (Agrotis spp.) and
seed-weevils (BrUchus spp.).
Weeds in the chickpea crop are also one of the major limiting factors to high
yield. Although the harmful effects of weeds are realized, the huge cost of
weeding prevents farmers from doing the operation. The tedious operation of
hand weeding is common in the traditional sector.
Farmers in some areas delay planting for some days until rains germinate at
least one "wave" of weeds which are then killed by cultivation or harrowing
before or at planting time.
Some experiments are conducted with preemergence herbicides during the
1980-81 crop season. The herbicides used include malaron, tribunil and Igran.
They gave good control of weeds, without damage to the crop.
Manual harvesting is practised. Plants are left after harvesting in the field in
small piles to dry and are later gathered into large heaps in the threshing yards.
land weeding, manual harvesting etc., and the increasing costs of all these
operations on one hand and low yields on the other, deprive farmers of the
incentive to grow chickpea on good pieces of land.
From the fields, the chickpea plants are transported (manually, bullock carts,
etc.) to threshing yards which are mostly on the edge of the village. Tarpaulins
are spread out on the grounds during loading of plants to avoid seed and pod
losses.