Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is a major legume crop being produced under dryland conditions of Lorestan with little detailed information on concomitant impacts of varying plant densities and water regimes on its agronomic performance. In order to study growth, grain yield and yield components in three chickpea genotypes of Greet, Karaj 12-60-31, and Hashem, at four plant densities (20, 28, 36 and 44 plants m-2) under two soil moisture regimes (dryland with and without supplementary irrigation) in Khorram-abad, Lorestan, two field experiments were conducted during 2000-2001 growing season at the Agricultural Research Station, College of Agriculture, Lorestan University, Khorram-abad. Each experiment was a RCBD with a factorial layout in three replicates. The supplementary irrigation treatment was implemented at grain filling stage. Supplementary irrigation led to a significant increase in grain weight and grain yield. Grain yield components (grain weight, pod per plant and grains per pod) as well as grain yield were decreased with an increase in plant density. While genotype Greet produced a larger number of pods per plant, grain yield as well as final dry matter, Karaj 12-60-31 produced a more pronounced number of grains per pod, grain weight and harvest index, as compared with other genotypes. It could be concluded that with the environmental conditions experienced in 2000-2001 growing season and genotypes employed in this study, planting genotype Greet at 20 plants m-2 along with supplementary irrigation may lead to a significant increase in grain yield under dryland conditions in Khorram-abad.
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