Abstract
Sorghum is an important forage crop, and both quantity and quality of this crop are affected by drought stress. Accordingly, in order to investigate the effect of drought stress on quantity and quality of morpho-physiological traits, a split-plot experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with four replicates in Isfahan, Iran, during 2017 and 2018 crop seasons. Treatments were irrigation regimes with four levels (control, preventing irrigation at pollination, seed milky, and seed doughy stages) and three varieties of sorghum (Sepideh, Kimia, and Payam). The results showed that drought stress negatively influenced morphological and yield-related traits of sorghum, while its effect was positive on some quality-related traits such as total soluble carbohydrate, crude protein, and proline contents. According to the results, drought stress based on prevention of irrigation at doughy stage (representing moderate drought stress) caused inconsiderable reduction in sorghum yield. In addition, drought stress has effect on relationships between morpho-physiological traits in sorghum. Considering morphological and yield-related traits together with susceptibility (stress susceptibility index) and tolerance (geometric mean product) indices indicated that Payam variety is more proper to be used in both drought stress and non-stress conditions. Furthermore, both Kimia and Payam varieties were shown to be suitable varieties based on quality-related traits, but because of having low NDF Payam variety might be more suitable.
Highlights
Environmental stresses have been negatively affected on production of different crops under worldwide
The analysis of variance (Table 2) indicated that, there were significant differences between cultivars in terms of plant height, tiller number, and panicle length; there was no significant difference in terms of traits for thousand-grain weight, panicle weight, grains weight per panicle and grain yield among cultivars
Overall results showed that drought stress negatively influenced morphological and yield-related traits of sorghum, but its effect on some quality-related traits such as total soluble carbohydrate, crude protein, and proline contents was positive, in addition to being involved in stress tolerance mechanisms, these factors can increase the quality of grain nutrition
Summary
Environmental stresses have been negatively affected on production of different crops ( cereals) under worldwide. Drought is the most important environmental stress which has limited the production of crops in arid and semiarid regions [1, 2]. Moench), as a forage crop, is a serious crop of cereal family highly tolerant to drought in comparison with other crops of this family [3, 4]. It is the fifth most cultivated cereal in the world after wheat, rice, maize, and barley [4], but in some countries, e.g., Sudan it could be categorized as the most economical crop [5]. Sorghum is on par with maize, in terms of feed quality and its commercial value, though
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