Lorestan province accounts for nearly 21 percent of total lands under chickpea cultivation in Iran. Chickpea is traditionally spring-planted under dryland conditions. Not much information is available on either its appropriate seeding rate or method, particularly in the temperate parts of this western province, namely Khorram Abad. A 4-replicate split-plot RCBD field experiment was conducted under dryland conditions of Khorram Abad during spring 2003. Two seeding methods consisting of planting on four 4-m long rows spaced 0.30 m apart (row seeding) and planting in 4 x 1.20 m plots followed by disk harrowing (scatter seeding) were used as main-plots. Three genotypes, namely Jam, ILC482 and Greet, seeded on March 1st, 2003 at four seeding rates of 20, 28, 37, and 45 seeds m-2, were assigned as subplots. Among genotypes studied, Greet appeared relatively earlier in maturity and lower in terms of seeds per pod, but higher in 100-grain weight and consequently dry matter, grain yield and harvest index, as compared to the rest of the genotypes. With an increase in seeding rate, there was no meaningful trend observed with most grain yield components, though significant increases in genotypes’ grain and biological yield were observed. Seedling emergence in all genotypes with scatter seeding varied from 65 to 75 percent of that with row seeding, which along with a lower number of pods per plant, led to a significantly greater grain and biological yield in the former seeding (row cropping) method. Despite a relatively low grain along with biological yield obtained with the present genotypes under dryland conditions of Khorram Abad, it could be concluded that with row seeding of at least 45 seeds m-2 a higher grain yield might be produced with spring chickpea under the mentioned climatic conditions.
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