Paper Details

PJB-2025-266

Impact of drought stress and phosphorus fertilization on production and quality of Atriplex nummularia fodder grown in salt-affected soil

Tasawer Abbas, Ali Majrashi, Muhammad Ather Nadeem, Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq, Rafi Qamar, Fnu Abdullah and Naila Farooq
Abstract

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The sustainable fodder production in salt-affected soils is essential for livestock farming in arid regions. Climate change-mediated drought stress is a major challenge, highlighting the urgent need to explore strategies such as phosphorus (P) fertilization to enhance resilience and productivity. This study investigates the effects of three drought stress levels, well-watered (100% field capacity, FC), moderately drought-stressed (80% FC), and severely drought-stressed (60% FC), and three P fertilizer rates (0, 50, and 100 mg kg^-1 soil) on the productivity, nutritive value, and İn vitro digestibility of Atriplex nummularia fodder cultivated in semi-arid condition. Drought significantly reduced plant height, leaf area, chlorophyll contents and biomass production of A. nummularia, however, P fertilization enhanced drought tolerance. Drought stress also significantly lowered mineral uptake, higher concentrations of Ca (1.2%), P (0.9%), K (3.4%), Mg (0.9%), and Na (2.0%) were observed under well-watered conditions with P fertilization at 100 mg kg⁻¹ of soil. Under drought, P fertilization increased crude protein (43%), fiber (30-33%), essential amino acids (44-47%) and non-essential amino acids (30-34%) concentrations, decreasing the adverse impacts of drought. Drought alone reduced fodder palatability by 31% and İn vitro digestibility by 18%. In contrast, P fertilization under drought improved palatability by 66% and digestibility by 32% compared to the non-fertilized drought control. The present findings demonstrate that P fertilization can significantly improve yield, nutritional quality, and digestibility of A. nummularia fodder under drought stress in salt-affected soil, offering a practical management strategy for arid-region livestock systems

To Cite this article: Abbas, T., A. Majrashi, M.A. Nadeem, M. Zia-Ul-Haq, R. Qamar, F. Abdullah and N. Farooq. 2026. Impact of drought stress and phosphorus fertilization on production and quality of Atriplex nummularia fodder grown in salt-affected soil. Pak. J. Bot., 58(6): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2026-6(16)  
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