EFFECT OF SUBMERGENCE STRESS ON AGRO-MORPHOLOGICALAND PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS IN RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L.)GENOTYPESGOUTAM DAS, BANSHIDHAR PRADHAN, DEBENDRA NATH BASTIA ANDRAMLAKHAN VERMAAbstract Submergence stress due to flash flooding is one of the most adverse abiotic factor of plant growthand productivity, considered a severe threat for sustainable crop production in the changing climate. Riceis semi-aquatic crop, able to make several modulations in their adaptive traits to sustain submergence stress,but intense and prolonged flooding is fatal for its sustainability. In this context, a field experiment wasconducted to assess the effect of different submergence regimes (7, 14 and 21 daysâ submergence) on agromorphologicaland physiological traits in rice at ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, India. Theexperiment was laid out in a Complete Randomized Design with three replications. Control (nosubmergence) and submergence (7, and 14 days) were imposed on eleven rice genotypes at vegetative stage.Plant height, number of tillers hill-1, spikelets fertility, % survival, chlorophyll content, total soluble sugarcontent showed decreasing trend under submergence, whereas, accumulation of proline content and ADHactivities reported enhanced level under submergence, especially in Sub1 carrying lines. From the currentresearch, it was observed that submergence stress affected plant growth stages substantially, therefore,genotypes showed least vulnerability under seven daysâ submergence might be utilized in traitsimprovement program. |