Effects of Drought and Salinity on Growth, Yield and Nutritional Contents of Cowpea Bean (Vigna marina)

Abstract

Background: The study was carried out to determine the duration of drought and salinity level on growth, green matter yield and nutrient content in cowpea bean plants. Methods: The experiment was arranged in a 2-factor factorial style, including (A) three drought levels: (i) 07 days of watering, (ii) 14 days of irrigation and (iii) 21 days of watering cessation; factor (B) three salinity levels including (i) saline irrigation 2%, (ii) saline irrigation 4% and (iii) saline irrigation 6%. Each treatment has five replicates. Result: Experimental results showed that stopping irrigation of cowpea bean plants for 14 and 21 days reduced height, SPAD index, stomatal opening, DM., CP and ash content, compared to stopping watering for seven days. It reduced the yield of green matter and the nitrogen content in the plant. Besides, increasing salinity irrigation concentration at four and 6% declined the height, SPAD index, stomatal opening, D.M., E.E. and C.P. of cowpea bean.The green matter yield and nitrogen content in the plants also decreased when irrigated with salinity 6%.

Morphophysiology of cowpea under salt stress and application of carbon-based nanobiostimulant in the vegetative stage

“…For the SPAD index, plants subjected to salt stress showed a reduction of 10.3% when compared to non-stressed plants (Figure 3B). Decreases in this variable with the increase in the salinity of irrigation water were also verified by Thuc et al (2023), when studying the effects of drought and salinity on the growth, production, and nutritional content of cowpea. This reduction in the SPAD index in plants under stress can be explained both by the negative effects of the excessive amount of sodium ions present in cells, which can end up blocking electron transport, and by oxidative damage on chlorophylls caused by excess of reactive oxygen species (Zhang et al, 2019).…”