Integrating Biochar, Rhizobacteria and Silicon for Strenuous Productivity of Drought Stressed Wheat

ABSTRACT

Drought is a detrimental abiotic stress limiting wheat growth and yield. Harmful impacts of drought stress can be ameliorated by the use of different growth enhancers either applied as soil amendment or by the foliar spray. The Present research was conducted under semi-arid conditions at Research area of Agronomy Department, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Investigations were made to have an insight into the role of three different amendments to minimize drought stress impacts in wheat during two consecutive years 2017–2018 and 2018–2019. Four drought treatments (control, drought at tillering, drought at flowering and drought at grain filling) and four drought amendments (control, PGPR, silicon and biochar) were used in an experiment with RCBD split plot arrangement. In order to impose drought stress, irrigation was stopped at different growth stages as per treatment. PGPR were applied by seed treatment technique, biochar was applied during soil preparation and silicon was applied foliarly. Drought stress markedly decreased the wheat growth and yield with maximum reduction in plots where crop faced drought at grain filling stage. All amendments had positive results in controlling drought stress but PGPR performed the best by improving leaf water relations, maximizing chlorophyll contents, grain yield, nutrients’ uptake and quality of drought-stressed wheat than other treatments.

KEYWORDS:

• Triticum aestivum
• limited irrigation
• N
• P
• K and Si uptake
• grain quality

Acknowledgments

The technical support for this study provided by Research area, Department of Agronomy, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur is gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.