Characterization of Cotton Genotypes for Agronomic and Fibre Traits Under Water Deficit Conditions

Abstract

Drought stress an important yield reduction factors and heading toward severity due to shortage of fresh water availability. The fifty cotton genotypes in field condition were screened out for drought tolerance on the basis of various yield, fiber quality profile and stress resistance indicator. The treatments were arranged according to Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) split plot with three replications. The irrigation treatments (normal and drought) were kept in main plots and genotypes in sub-plots. The great genotypic diversity was observed among tested entries and response to stress tolerance was not similar for all observed characters even within variety. The ginning out turn (GOT), staple strength and micronaire values were improved with drought stress and remaining tested traits were adversely affected with drought. The highest seed cotton yield in normal and stress condition was recorded from CIM-608 and MPS-11, respectively. The highest (42.3) and lowest (9.4) TOL based on seed cotton yield was noted for CIM-608 and MS-64, respectively which showed their relatively susceptible and tolerant for drought. The yield of genotypes in normal is positively and in stress is negatively associated with TOL and SSI. Twenty genotypes were characterized with YI greater than one which exhibited better performance under drought conditions. The results suggested that intra-specific morphological diversity can further be exploited to have genetic information about parameters which signify drought resistance using molecular markers.