Growth Physiology of Local Rice Varieties under Moisture Stress Condition

Abstract

A well-established limiting factor for the survival of plant under normal growth and developmental stages is water stress. Several living (Biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) factors unfavorably affect rice growth and as well yield, and this is connected with the adverse and intense effect of water (Adejare and Unebesse, 2008). In view of this, the present study was carried out during the dry season, between the month of March to April, 2017 which aimed at determining how moisture stress affect the growth physiology of our locally grown rice varieties and to determine the rice variety with drought resistant mechanism between three (3) different local rice varieties: Mai Zabuwa, Maza haji, B.G doguwa. The plant samples were obtained from local farmers from the main city market, a control variety of upland drought resistant rice variety was used as a control (Nerica). There were three different treatments namely, W1 (control-well watered), W2 (mildly watered) and W3 (stressed). A total of 36 pots with a combination of three (3) replications for each treatment including control were been put up for the experiment. The studies revealed that drought adaptation mechanism have shown to be noticeably observed in the Mai Zabuwa variety whereas B.G doguwa and Maza haji performed poorly under drought treatment. Mai Zabuwa, suggestively is observed to have behaved as a drought resistant variety as compared to Nerica.