THE RESPONSE OF WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L.) TO INTEGRATING EFFECTS OF DROUGHT STRESS AND NITROGEN MANAGEMENT

M. Jamil, M. Akram, R. M. Iqbal

Abstract: An experiment was conducted to study the dual effects of drought stress and nitrogen levels in wheat crop under the climatic conditions of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. For this purpose, five drought stress regimes including control (D1) drought stress at stem elongation stage (D2), drought stress at stem elongation + earing stage (D3), drought stress at stem elongation + earing + milking stage (D4), drought stress at stem elongation + earing + milking + grain formation stage (D5) and four nitrogen levels viz. control, 130, 160, 190 kg N ha-1 (N0-N3) were involved. The exposure of plants to drought stress leads to a noticeable decrease in transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, leaf relative water contents, nitrogen use efficiency and yield of wheat, however, nitrogen application improve these parameters. Besides this, by increasing drought stress water uptake capacity was increased and significant decrease was bring about by nitrogen application. Water use efficiency increased with increasing nitrogen rate and deficit irrigation regimes and it show the capability of crop to survive under drought stress conditions and increasing wheat crop yield in study region by reasonable increasing of nitrogen fertilizer rate.

Keywords: drought stress; gas exchange; nitrogen; nitrogen use effciency; Triticum aestivum; water relations

Date published: 2019-04-18