Effect of superabsorbent on physio-morphological traits and forage yield of millet (Pennisetum americanum L.) under different irrigation treatments

Keshavarz, L. and Farahbakhsh, H. (2013) Effect of superabsorbent on physio-morphological traits and forage yield of millet (Pennisetum americanum L.) under different irrigation treatments. International Journal of Plant, Animal and Environmental Sciences, 2 (3). pp. 149-156.

[img] PDF - Published Version
Restricted to ICRISAT researchers only
Request a copy

Abstract

The present research was carried out to study effects of superabsorbent polymer and irrigation treatments on different morph-physioological traits of pearl millet. The experiment was conducted as a split plot based on a Randomized Complete Block design (RCBD) with three replications. Four different irrigation levels (I1= 100%, I2= 80%, I3= 60% and I4=40%) of field capacity (FC) were allocated to main plots. Three levels of super absorbent polymer [S1= Control, S2= 150 (kgha-1) and S3= 300 (kgha-1)] were allocated to sub plots. Different characteristics including: plant height, dry forage yield, fresh forage yield, water use efficiency (WUE), Leaf Area Index (LAI), relative water content (RWC), Protein content(%), ash content(%) and chlorophyll index were studied. Analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference between irrigation and superabsorbent levels for all of the studied traits. The highest value for fresh yield and dry yield of forage (98.48 and 27.75 tonha-1) obtained in normal irrigation. Superabsorbent application increased forage yield, RWC, WUE and LAI. The highest value for fresh yield and dry yield (93.83 and 23.89 tonha-1) were obtained in S3 treatment. This treatment caused the highest value for WUE. Ash and protein content (%) affected by different levels of irrigation and zeolit. The values of RWC and ash (%) had not significant difference between S2 and S3 treatments. The obtained result indicated that super absorbent had a remarkable effect on improvement of millet growth, forage yield and its quality under drought stress.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Irrigation, forage, millet, Quality, Yield, Zeolit
Author Affiliation: College of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
Subjects: Plant Production
Divisions: Millet
Depositing User: Mr T L Gautham
Date Deposited: 23 Aug 2016 07:54
Last Modified: 23 Aug 2016 07:54
URI: http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/14310

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item
EPrints Logo
eprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.