Introduction of the best criterion for evaluation of tolerance to drought stress in sorghum’s genotypes

Abstract

<p class="042abstractstekst">Sorghum (<em>Sorghum bicolor</em> (L.) Moench) is the fifth important cereal considered a drought-tolerant crop. However, its reduction of grain yield considerably occurs in a shortage of water. In the current study, 10 sorghum genotypes were assessed for their grain yield under normal irrigation and water deficit irrigation. As well, the efficacy of several drought indices was evaluated for the selection of high-yield and drought-tolerant genotypes. The experiment was conducted as a split-plot considering three irrigation levels as main-plot and 10 genotypes as sub-plot. Correlation among the indices, clustering of the genotypes along with principal component analysis was employed. Yield production was significantly and positively correlated with indices MP (mean productivity), STI (stress tolerance index), GMP (geometric productivity), HM (harmonic mean), and YI (yield index) in all the irrigation levels. Therefore, these indices are more effective in the selection of high-yielding genotypes under different water conditions. Rank means of stress indices for each genotype revealed that genotype TN-04-79 in mild deficit irrigation and genotypes KGS23 and TN-04-79 in severe deficit irrigation were the most tolerant.</p>

The Effect of Deficit Water Irrigation on the Performance of Promising Lines of Grain Sorghum

“…Iran is considered an arid (65%) to semi-arid (25%) region (25 • to 38 • N latitude) with an area of about 1.5 million km 2 , which is equivalent to 3% of the area of arid and semi-arid regions of the world [2]. Sorghum has been introduced as a drought-tolerant crop due to its unique morphological and physiological characteristics and less water requirement compared to maize [3]. Onken et al [4] reported an increase in water use efficiency in sorghum during long irrigation cycles.…”