Alleviating the Drought Stress in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by Foliar Application of Amino Acid and Yeast

Abstract

Drought stress is in spotlight as a main limiting factor for crop production across the globe especially in arid to semi-arid regions. Overcome this, various management practices are used one of them is the use of a growth enhancer. In the present study drought ameliorating effects of amino acid and yeast on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), development and yield were observed. A field experiment was performed at Agronomic Research Area, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur in November 2019. Factorial arrangement in Randomized complete block design (RCBD) was used to design the experimentation. The experiment consisted of six treatments viz, Control, a drought at flowering and grain filling stages, Amino acid @ 1.5 ml L-1+ drought at flowering and grain filling, Amino acid @ 3 ml L-1+ drought at flowering and grain filling, Yeast @ 3g L-1+ drought at flowering and grain filling and Yeast @ 6g L-1+ drought at flowering and grain filling, respectively. Statistics 8.1 programs were used for data analysis. Drought spell significantly reduced the growth development and wheat yield as compared to control treatment. Application of both growth enhancer amino acid and yeast significantly mitigated the adversarial effect of drought on the wheat as compared to the treatments in which drought was imposed without the application of yeast and amino acid. However, yeast more effectively moderated drought effects than amino acids. Maximum spike length (15.73 cm), spike number (18.75), grains per spike number (54.50), 1000 grain weight (44.08g) seed yield (5.445 tons), sugars, proline, total phenols, amino acids, and carbohydrates were recorded in treatment in which yeast was applied @6g L-1+ drought at flowering and grain filling. It was concluded that both amino acid and yeast can recompense the unfavorable special effects due to dearth but yeast was proved to be more effective than an amino acid.