Organic Amendments Improve Plant Morpho-Physiology and Antioxidant Metabolism in Mitigating Drought Stress in Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

Due to the unpredictable climate change, drought stress is being considered as one of the major threats to crop production. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. BARI Gom-26) being a dry season crop frequently faces scarcity of water and results in a lower yield. Therefore, this experiment aims to explore the role of different organic amendments (OAs) in mitigating drought stress-induced damage. The pot experiment consisted of different organic amendments viz. compost, vermicompost and poultry manure @0.09 kg m−2 soil, biochar @2.5% w/w soil and chitosan @1% w/w soil which was imposed on the plants grown under both well-watered and drought conditions. Results showed that drought stress reduced plant height (15%), SPAD value (16%), relative water content (13%), number of spikelet spike−1 (17%), number of grains spike−1 (12%), and 100-grain weight (18%). Organic amendments act as a protectant and reduce drought stress-induced damages by enhancing the morpho-physiological and yield attributes. Vermicompost enhanced SPAD value by 18%, number of spikelets spike−1 by 20%, number of grains spike−1 by 17%, whereas poultry manure increased plant height by 16% under drought condition compared to control plant. Unlike other OAs applied, vermicompost was proved to be capable of reducing the higher lipid peroxidation and proline content raised by drought condition. Drought stress-induced increment of catalase, ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase activities were also efficiently modulated by the organic amendment application. The present study concluded that OAs play significant roles in alleviating drought stressinduced damages by improving the morpho-physiological attributes and among the different types of OAs used vermicompost performed better which in addition ceased the production of reactive oxygen species.