Assessing the Performance of Chickpea Cultivars in Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh, India

This study assessed the yield gaps of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh where a total of 240 trials on improved chickpea cultivars viz. GNG 1581, GPF 2 and Himachal Chana 2 along with best practices were conducted by KVK in Mandi for three consecutive years under the Cluster Front Line Demonstration (CFLDs) program during Rabi 2015-16 to Rabi 2017-18. The study revealed that the demonstration yield of chickpea cultivars viz. GNG 1581, GPF 2 and Himachal Chana 2 were significantly better than the farmer's practice. Overall, a seed yield of 616 kg ha-1 was achieved in the three years of data collected in the demonstration plot, which was 40.32 percent higher than the farmer's practice. The technology and extension gap in the data collected under the three-year CFLDs program were 1546.5 kg ha–1 and 177 kg ha–1 respectively. The improved technology package not only improved water use efficiency, chickpea profitability in terms of gross and net returns, but also improved the benefit-cost ratio (BC). The overall technology index of 71.51 percent revealed a satisfactory performance of technology interventions, which can be further strengthened in the region by bridging the gaps through more effective research and extension services.