HIMANI PUNIA*, JAYANTI TOKAS, ANJU RANI, PERNIKA GUPTA AND SATPAL
Department of Biochemistry
Forage Section, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding
CCS Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar-125004, Haryana, India
*(e-mail : himanipunia91@gmail.com)
(Received : 16 May 2021; Accepted : 26 June 2021)
SUMMARY
Salt stress has been considered a major limiting factor to crop productivity in arid and semi-arid regions. The present study was conducted to evaluate the sorghum genotypes superior in quality and yield under saline conditions. The two factor experiment was carried out in a completely randomized block design with three replications during the kharif season 2018 and 2019. Crude protein content and IVDMD decreased significantly under different salinity levels. The higher reduction being reported in PC-5 than SSG 59-3. Crude protein yield (CPY) and digestible dry matter (DDM) was maximum in SSG 59-3 and minimum in PC-5 at 10 dSm-1. Salt stress showed an adverse effect on yield attributes and yield, so seed yield per plant, green fodder yield (GFY), and dry matter yield (DMY), decreased under salt stress. GFY and DMY were maximum in SSG 59-3 while minimum in PC-5. Better performance was maintained by SSG 59-3 than PC-5. This, SSG 59-3 (salt-tolerant) genotype acclimated better than PC-5 (salt-sensitive) genotype by maintaining the fodder quality and yield and may be exploited in plant breeding programs aimed at developing salt-tolerant sorghum genotypes for salinity prone areas.
Key words: Crude protein, fodder yield, HCN, IVDMD, salinity and sorghum