PJB-2023-1510
Organic amendments mitigate drought stress-induced oxidative changes in synthetic cultivars of maize
Shabir Hussain and Muhammad Nadeem Shah
Abstract
Drought stress is the most crucial abiotic stress. It adversely affects plant growth and increases reactive oxygen specifies. However, antioxidants biosynthesis is one of the most important defensive mechanisms of crops under drought stress. On the other hand, many scientists successfully elaborate the positive effects of organic amendments for alleviation of drought stress in cereal crops. These organic amendments, i.e., farmyard manure (FYM), poultry manure (PM) and biochar have the potential to improve soil water holding capacity. Although many scientists have worked on organic amendments to mitigate drought stress, there is still an information gap regarding organic amendment's effects on the antioxidant attributes of plants. That is why the current study was conducted on two maize varieties, "Neelum" and "Sadaf" with two irrigation levels, i.e., normal (100%FC) and drought stress (50%FC). In organic amendments, FYM, PM and biochar were applied with three replications in a randomized complete block design with a split-split plot arrangement. Results showed that antioxidants SOD, POD and CAT were significantly increased in "Neelum" and "Sadaf" under drought stress (50%FC) over control irrigation (100%FC). Adding FYM and PM significantly decreased SOD, POD and CAT over control. However, biochar remained significantly best for decreasing antioxidants under stress conditions. The addition of biochar also remained significantly better among all the treatments for the enhancement in protein and sugar contents of maize varieties. In conclusion, biochar application can provide better results for alleviating drought stress in "Neelum" and "Sadaf" maize varieties over FYM and PM. More investigations are suggested in the field to declare the best biochar application rate for drought stress alleviation in maize
To Cite this article:
Hussain, S. and M.N. Shah. 2023. Organic amendments mitigate drought stress-induced oxidative changes in synthetic cultivars of maize. Pak. J. Bot., 55(2): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2023-2(12)
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