Abstract
Drought is one of the primary cause of reduced agricultural growth and yield in the world today. Therefore, present study was
conducted to evaluate the potential of synthetic and natural priming agents in improving performance of drought sensitive
(Millat-11) and tolerant (AARI-11) wheat cultivars under various irrigation deficit regimes. Seeds of both cultivars were
primed with water (hydro), moringa leaf extract (MLE30), KCl (2%) and benzyl amino purine (BAP) (50 mg L-1
) along with
on farm priming. Hydro-priming was kept as control. Irrigation soil water deficit regimes were comprised of without soil
water deficit at crown root initiation (CRI), tillering (T), booting (B), and heading (H) stages (control) {CRI+T+B+H} and
soil water deficits applied at {H}, {T+H}, {CRI+H}, {CRI+B}, {T+B} growth stages. Seeds primed with MLE30 and BAP
significantly improved the grain yield. MLE30-priming showed maximum increase in the concentrations of antioxidant
enzymes (SOD, POD, and CAT) and non-enzymes (AsA and TPC) under irrigation deficit imposed at (CRI+H) stage.
Nevertheless, benefit cost ratio (BCR) also showed that the seed priming with MLE30 is an efficient and economical technique
as compared to BAP, KCl, on farm and hydro priming in improving the productivity of wheat cultivar AARI-11 under all
observed soil water deficit regimes. Ultimately, it is concluded that MLE30 is a natural and cost effective priming tool for
maximizing wheat yield owing to its stress ameliorating potential.
