Echophysiological impact of water stress on growth and development of mungbean

Drought is undoubtedly one of the most important environmental stresses limiting the productivity of crop plants in arid and semi arid area of world. This study was carried out to investigate the effects of drought stress on echophysiological traits of five cultivars of mungbean (Vigna radiata L. cultivars: Parto, Gohar, NM-94, C-1-6-16, C-1973A). A field experiment with four irrigation regimes was conducted in a split plot design with three replications. Treatments included control (well-watering), drought stress imposed during the flowering, drought stress imposed during podding and drought stress imposed during the seeding. Results showed that all phonological and morphological parameters were affected by drought stress treatments. Drought stress, especially in flowering phase were significantly decreased plant height, grain yield, 100-grain weight, number of grains per pod, number of pods per plant, number of side branches, days to flowering and to physiological maturity. In contrast, drought stresses were only affecting physiological parameters such as chlorophyll and relative water content (RWC) at the flowering stage. Grain yield was positively correlated to 100-grain weight (r = 0.769), the number of pods per plant(r = 0.702) and number of grains in pod (r = 0.769) which emphasizes the importance of these traits in studying the yield and yield components of mungbean. Parto had the highest grain yield (1720) and physiological parameters compared to other cultivars. Drought stress treatments accelerated the phonological phases of mungbean. Flowering and grain filling were, respectively, more sensitive and tolerant phases to drought stress.