PJB-2023-1534
Growth and yield of rice under variable application methods of zinc with and without arbuscular mycorrhizae in normal and saline soils
Hassan Mehmood, Muhammad Arif Ali and Saddam Hussain
Abstract
Salinity is a major abiotic stress that adversely affects the crop's growth, especially cereals. It caused an ionic imbalance in soils, resulting in poor uptake of micronutrients. Among these micronutrients, zinc (Zn) is essential when cultivating cereals like rice. On the other hand, application methods of micronutrients, i.e., Zn, can over this issue in salt-affected soils. Scientists also recommend the inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizae (AMF) to improve Zn uptake and alleviate salinity stress. That’s why the current study was conducted to enhance rice production in salt-affected soils using different application methods of Zn with and without AMF. For that, 12 treatments were applied in 3 replications following a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Results showed that AMF inoculation under ZnS performed significantly best in normal soil for the enhancement in shoot fresh weight (47.14%) and dry weight (46.36), photosynthetic rate (47.09%), transpiration rate (50.76%) and stomatal conductance (67.44%) over SS. A significant improvement in Zn grains concentration also validated the efficacious functioning of ZnS over No Zn and ZnF with AMF+SS. In conclusion, ZnS with AMF is a good approach for the alleviation of salinity stress and improvement in Zn grains concentration in rice. More investigations at the field level are suggested on other cereal crops in different climates to proclaim ZnS with AMF as the best treatment for mitigating salinity stress and enhancing Zn concentration in cereals grains
To Cite this article:
Mehmood, H., M.A. Ali and S. Hussain. 2023. Growth and yield of rice under variable application methods of zinc with and without arbuscular mycorrhizae in normal and saline soils. Pak. J. Bot., 55(SI): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2023-SI(1)
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