INFLUENCE OF OSMOPROTECTANTS AND THEIR DIFFERENT APPLICATION METHODS ON WHEAT (TRITICUMAESTIVUM L.) CULTIVARS UNDER WATER DEFICIENCY IN SOUTH PUNJAB REGION OF PAKISTAN

Water deficiency in Agriculture sector is the main factor that limits the production of crops. During the cropping years 2016-17 and 2017-18, a field experiment was conducted at Central Cotton Research Institute, Multan, Pakistan with the objective to minimize the adverse impacts of water deficiency on wheat. In this study, two wheat cultivars Johar-2016 (Jr) and Gold-2016 (Gd) were tested with three types of osmoprotectants with control treatment (Cl = Control, Gb = Glycine betaine, Th = Trehalose, Pl = Proline) along with three different application methods (Sp = Seed priming, As = Application on Anthesis stage, Sp + As = Seed priming + Application on Anthesis stage) of osmoprotectants. All the osmoprotectants were applied at the rate of 150 mg/l of water while in control only water was sprayed. The crop was sown under RCBD with the split split-plot arrangement. Water scarcity was enforced on the crop by giving 25.4 cm (62.5%) depth of water out of 40.64 cm (100%) of crop water requirement. Data was collected regarding crop growth and yield, crop water relation, grains quality, antioxidant contents and osmoprotectant contents. Mean data of both years were statistically analyzed. Results showed that interactive treatment Jr x Gb x Sp + As performed better in most of the parameters (e.g. 1000 Grain weight = 35.905 g, Grain yield = 4.6883 t ha-1, Biological yield = 10.367 t ha 1) however interactive treatments Jr x Th x Sp + As (Starch contents = 58.14%) and Jr x Pl x Sp + As (Protein contents = 13.79%) were also remained fruitful.