Climate Smart Agriculture with Drought Resistant Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Cultivars under Subtropical Climate

Abstract

Climate smart agriculture focus on crop production under climate stress. Climate change adaptation potential was investigated in medium textured soil to evaluate the drought/water stress effect on different cultivars of tomato. The imposed stress levels were 82 -100% (T0), 69-85% (T1), 53-67% (T2) and 40-50% (T3) of the FC (Field Capacity). In water stressed condition no significant influence was observed in production of plant dry matter and increased acids & soluble sugars and consequently improved the fruit quality. Water stresses did not show any significant effect on height, yield and increased in BR-5, probably due to its tolerance to water stress. Also, none of the stress- treated tomatoes showed deteriorated visual quality of the fruits and were red over 90%. No bruising and internal damages in tissues were detected due to stress. Water stresses enhanced the sweetness of the fruits by increasing their organic solute contents as glucose, fructose and sucrose contents and improved the quality by increasing the amount of important acids such as citric acid, malic acid and ascorbic acid, showed the adaptation responses of the crop to climatic stress due to conspicuous tendency of tomato plants to adjust osmotically against drought stress.