Badal Verma, A.K. Jha, R.S. Ramakrishnan, P.B. Sharma, K.K. Agrawal and Muskan Porwal
Abstract
Wheat is major food crop of the rainfed areas. However, drought stress poses serious decline in the productivity of the crop. This research was therefore, conducted to evaluate the effect of irrigation levels and foliar application of stress regulators on the growth and productivity of wheat. The experiment was conducted in rabi season of 2021-2022 at AICRP on Wheat, College of Agriculture, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur. Thirty treatment combinations comprising of main plot treatments of three irrigation levels, sub-plot of two wheat varieties and sub-sub plot of five stress regulators were laid out in split-split plot design and replicated thrice. It was found that three irrigations at CRI, flowering and milking stage resulted in higher growth and yield (4288.26 kg ha-1). Wheat genotype JW3288 outperformed JW3382 with 5.45% enhanced growth and 11.24% higher yield. Among the stress regulators, foliar application of 2% KCl produced highest growth and yield (4136.72 kg ha-1) among other treatments. These results indicate that three irrigations with foliar application of 2% KCl can produce optimal yields in wheat crop under moisture scarcity. Also, wheat genotype JW3288 can be considered best to grow under limited water conditions.