The study of different types of tillage can be effective in promoting conservation agriculture for chickpea cultivation. The present experiment was conducted to study the effects of different soil management (reduced tillage (RT), no-tillage (NT), and conventional tillage (CT)) on morpho-physiological characteristics of chickpea in a complete randomized block design field experiment with three replications during the 2017–2019 cropping seasons. In this experiment effects of soil management on mycorrhizal colonization and sporulation, rhizobium nodules, relative leaf water content, leaf area index, chlorophyll and carotenoids, chlorophyll fluorescence, canopy temperature, enzymes, proline, hydrogen peroxide, malondialdehyde, leaf soluble proteins, carbohydrates, and leaf P and N content were investigated in early grain filling were evaluated. The highest activity of antioxidant enzymes including catalase (0.066 U/mg− 1 Protein min− 1 ), peroxidase (1.22 U/mg− 1 Protein min− 1 ), and superoxide dismutase (0.69 U/mg− 1 Protein min− 1 ) were observed in the plants grown under CT practice, while the lowest were observed under NT system. In NT, the lowest amounts of malondialdehyde and carotenoids were retrieved compared to the conventional tillage. CT determined a reduction in chlorophyll in leaves compared to RT (13 %) and NT (36.2 %), respectively. The highest rate of canopy temperature depression occurred in no-tillage system. The highest remobilization from stems to seeds was respectively obtained from conventional tillage, reduced tillage and no-tillage treatments. In no-tillage, leaf area index, quantum efficiency of PSII (chlorophyll fluorescence), relative water content, leaf nitrogen, and leaf phosphorus increased compared to reduced tillage and conventional tillage, respectively. The rate of colonization and sporulation of mycorrhizal fungi and the number of rhizobium nodules significantly increased under NT compared to RT and CT systems. The results in this experiment showed that the NT system improved relative leaf water content, reduced antioxidant enzymes, and positive effects on measured morpho-physiological traits increased the yield and stability of chickpea compared to RT and CT systems under rainfed conditions.
