Growth and Yield Performance of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to under Water Stress Conditions

Abstract

Background: Drought is one of the most important abiotic factors that limit the growth and development of plants all over the world. In Ethiopia, wheat is the second most important crop and occupies third in total production in the African countries. Low productivity as compared to the national production scale is due to water stress. The present work aimed to study the effect of water stress on the growth and yield performance of wheat.Methods: The experiment was conducted in an exceeding greenhouse at East Gojjam Zone, Debre Markos University in 2017-2018 to assess the effects of wheat to water stress applied at different growth stages. The experiment comprised of two water stress treatments, maintained by withholding water at tillering, anthesis and at each stage. Different growth and yield performance data were collected and analyzed by SAS software.Result: Water stress caused a reduction in leaf relative water contents, water potential, osmotic potential, turgor potential, growth and yield components of the wheat. The results indicated that successive stress at growth stages caused a severe reduction in vegetative growth parameters of wheat. Therefore, the results indicated that the high value of relative water content was related to exaggerated yield and its components of crops. The water-stressed treatment has reduced the growth and yield performance of wheat than unstressed treatments. This was due to a reduction in the osmotic activities of plants.