Abstract
Climate change emerges in different forms such as drought, which is prevalent all over
the world, especially in semi-arid and arid regions. Crop production especially wheat
(Triticum aestivum L.) yield is affected due to water shortage at critical growth stages
in Pakistan. A greenhouse experiment was conducted by using plastic trays to assess
the performance of wheat to exogenous silicon (Si) application under water stress which
in applied through skipping irrigation at critical stages at College of Agriculture,
University of Sargodha, Pakistan. Experiment include irrigation levels (I1: irrigation at
crown root stage + booting stage, I2: irrigation at crown root stage + anthesis stage, I3:
crown root stage + grain development stage, I4: crown root stage + booting stage +
anthesis stage + grain development stage, I5: crown root stage + tillering stage + booting
stage + earing stage + milking stage + dough stage) and foliar application of Si viz.,
Si0: 0% (Control), Si1: 0.25%, Si2: 0.50%, and Si3: 1% (w/v). Treatment combination I1
+ Si0 significantly reduced yield and yield attributes, net assimilation rate, Si contents
in plants, leaf water potential, chlorophyll content, root length and water use efficiency
furthermore, increased evapotranspiration efficiency. In contrast, treatment
combination I5 + Si3 significantly increased these parameters and reduced
evapotranspiration efficiency. Moreover, treatment combinations I4 + Si3 and I3 + Si3
were statistically at par with treatment combination I5 + Si3 which indicating the role of
Si in mitigating negative impact of water shortage and improved these parameters. It is
concluded that plant exhibited positive response at irrigation levels I3 and I4 in
combination with foliar-applied Si3 while irrigation level lower than I3 with Si3 was not
showed positive improvement in crop productivity.
Rafi Qamar, Imtiaz Anjum, Atique-ur-Rehman, Muhammad Ehsan Safdar, Hafiz Muhammad Rashad, Yasir Ramzan, Abdul Rehman, Javeed . (2020) Mitigating water stress on wheat through foliar application of silicon, Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology, Volume 8, Issue 1.
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