Abstract
Drought is responsible for major yield losses in many worldwide crops and is expected to occur more frequently due to climate change. Cowpea, one of the most drought tolerant legumes, stands as a promising crop in the future climatic context. The screening for genotypes well adapted to this constraint is an essential step to improve cowpea production. A collection of 29 cowpea genotypes (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) from the Iberian Peninsula and 11 other countries from worldwide regions was grown and submitted to drought stress using pipes with 30 cm (control) and 90 cm (stress) of height in which water was supplied through the bottom. A set of root and agro-morphological parameters were evaluated, including shoot and root dry weight, root:shoot ratio and stem greenness. Overall, results show that under drought stress, plants seem to invest in root development and reduce shoot biomass. Higher root dry weight under drought conditions could be related to a higher drought tolerance in cowpea. Based on the evaluated traits, it was possible to identify genotypes, particularly C47 (Iran), C56 and C11 (Portugal), which might represent promising cowpea genetic resources for improved drought tolerance breeding.
Highlights
Climate change predictions point towards an increase in extreme events in the coming years, namely long periods of drought [1]
Several parameters have been described as indicators of water deficit in crop plants, including plant-based parameters, such as stomatal conductance and biochemical markers, and soil-based parameters such the soil water content (SWC), which seem to be indicative of water stress condition [15,25,26,27]
Soil humidity gradually decreased in all pipes and this decrease was more evident in the 90 cm pipes
Summary
Climate change predictions point towards an increase in extreme events in the coming years, namely long periods of drought [1]. Drought causes yield losses in major agricultural crops [2]. Since the global population is expected to reach over 9 billion people by 2050, agricultural systems are required to be more productive and to assure sustainable food production under the expected climate challenges [3]. Cowpea is an important crop in semi-arid tropics, in Africa, the continent that is responsible for 96.4% of worldwide production [4]. 70% of grain legumes (including cowpea), leading a negative trade scenario. For this reason, the increasing of cowpea production in Europe is fundamental [5]. The dry grain has high protein levels (20.0–39.4%) and low fat content
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