ALLEVIATION OF DROUGHT STRESS IN WHEAT BY DIFFERENT ORGANIC AMENDMENTS

Abstract

Drought stress is one of the major threat of agricultural production. A pot experiment with organic amendments was conveyed at the experimental net house of the Department of Agronomy, Sher-e Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka from November-February, 2018 to investigate the effect of drought stress on the growth, physiology and yield and the mollification capacity of drought in wheat using organic amendments. The experiment was carried out by BARI gom-26 and treatments were well-watered, water deficit and organic amendments viz. control (C), compost (CO) @10 t ha -1 , vermicompost (VC) @ 10 t ha -1 , poultry manure (PM)

@10 t ha -1 , biochar (B) @ 2.5% w/w soil and chitosan (CH) @ 1% w/w soil. Drought stress reduced germination 7.48%, plant height 15.02%, SPAD value 15.91%, relative water content 13.44%, number of spikelet spike -1 16.92%, number of grains spike -1 11.73%, and hundred grains weight 17.83%. Application of organic amendments acts as a protectant and reduces drought stress condition and in most cases it enhanced above these growth, physiological, yield and yield attributes. Germination enhanced 11.82 % by compost application, SPAD value enhanced 17.52% by vermicompost, Plant height increased 16.01% by poultry manure, number of spikelets spike enhanced 19.92% by vermicompost,

number of

grains spike -1 increased 16.62% by vermicompost application than control under drought condition. Organic amendments prevents the production of reactive oxygen species and consequently prevents from oxidative stress. So, the present study concluded that organic amendments played significant role to alleviate drought and among these vermicompost performed better.