SARITA DEVI, SATPAL, GAYATRI KUMARI AND PANKAJ
Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, CCS Haryana Agricultural university, Hisar-125004 (Haryana), India
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding (Forage Section), CCS Haryana Agricultural university, Hisar-125004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail: devisaritaa@gmail.com)
(Received: 12 November 2024; Accepted: 26 December 2024)
SUMMARY
Water scarcity is a major agricultural threat, impacting diverse crops like oats. To understand the mechanism that how oats cope with moisture stress at the morpho-physiological level is crucial for developing resilient cultivars and adapting agricultural practices. This study aimed to evaluate the morpho-physiological parameters of 14 Avena sativa (oat) varieties (OS 7, OS 346, OS 377, OS 403, OS 405, OS 424, OS 427, HFO 529, HJ 8, HFO 114, HFO 611, HFO 607, HFO 707 and HFO 906) under varying levels of moisture stress. Different oats varieties were subjected to four different levels of moisture saturation (100, 75, 50 and 25%). Parameters studied were shoot and root length, fresh weight (FW) and dry weight (DW) of shoot and root, anthocyanin, flavonoids, chlorophyll index and nitrogen balance index (NBI). Based on two-year study, significant variation was observed among the 14 oat varieties under moisture stress conditions. Among varieties HFO 611, HJ-8, OS 424 and OS 377 were found promising on the basis of better morpho- physiological performance (higher value of dry weight of shoot and root, chlorophyll index, nitrogen balance index, anthocyanin) under moisture stress conditions.
Key words: Oat, moisture stress, drought tolerance, chlorophyll, anthocyanin