A Study of the Susceptibility of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Seed Varieties to Mechanical Damage

Mechanical damages inflicted upon seeds in harvesting, handling and further subsequent processes are worth attention because they unfavourably influence the quality of seed. Seed damage results in lower grain value, storage problems, and reduced seed germination and seedling vigor, resulting in a subsequent diminishing yield of future crops. The present experiments were conducted to determine the extent of mechanical damage to chickpea seeds (physical damage along with reduction in percent germination) due to impact. A completely randomized factorial design of three replications was employed for each combination of variables. Independent variables were consisted of chickpea seed varierty (Arman, Bivanij, Filip93-93, Hashem and ILC482) and impact velocity (10, 20 and 30 m/s). It was found out that chickpea seed variety and impact velocity had significant effects on percentage of seed damage (p=0.01). With increasing the impact velocity from 10 to 30 m/s, the percentage of seed damage increased from 17.79 to 87.57% (72.61% physical damage and 14.96% reduction in germination). Physical damage to seeds at impact velocities higher than 10 m/s was higher than damage from reduction in the germination rate. It was observed that the Filip93-93 chickpea seeds were more susceptible to mechanical damage than other varieties and had 63.81% total damage (48.72% physical damage and 15.09% reduce in germination) and the Arman chickpea seeds had the lower total damage (35.47% physical damage and 11.66% reduce in germination).