SEED PRIMING OF PEPPER (CAPSICUM ANNUUM L.) WITH -AMINOBUTYRIC ACID (BABA) ALLEVIATES DROUGHT STRESS

The problem of drought in many major crops such as Capsicum annuum are onerous and numerous but not insurmountable. beta- aminobutyric acid (BABA) seed priming was used in the present study to investigate its effectiveness as a panacea in relieving drought stress in C. annuum. The drought regimes included the withdrawal of irrigation for 0, 3, 5 and 7 days. C. annuum seeds were primed with 1.0 mM BABA. These four drought conditions were paired in relation to the BABA primed and un-primed seeds to make 8 treatments and each treatments had 3 replicates. Measurements to assess manifestations of drought with or without BABA were taken morphologically, physiologically and biochemically. The outcome of the findings revealed that the progressive drought stress was telling adversely on the performance of the plant. BABA, in no small measure, was able to sustain the stable growth of the plant accordingly with the severity of drought. Highlights of its efficacies include improving the plant height, leaf area, stomatal conductance, and transpiration, scavenging ROS production through boosting of antioxidants, preventing lipid peroxidation, maintaining chlorophyll content and promoting proline accumulation. The use of BABA at such concentrations as 1.0 mM is thus prescribed in battling water deficit challenges in C. annuum.