| Popis: |
Background: The main constraint of rice cultivation in Mediterranean area is the limited irrigation water and consumes large. In addition, rice is very sensitive to drought conditions due to its effect on morpho-physiological traits with yield reduction. The application of salicylic acid (SA) has been noticed as very effective to alleviate the adverse effects of drought stress in rice. This investigation was conducted as split-split experiments based on randomized complete blocks design with two rice cultivars (Giza 177 and Giza 179), SA as a foliar application at four concentrations (0, 400, 700, and 1000 µM) under normal and drought conditions. Results: plant growth, leaf photosynthetic pigments, yields, and most studied traits were significantly affected by irrigation conditions (I), cultivars (C), and SA concentrations (p under drought conditions compared to other SA concentrations. Grain yield (t ha-1) for normal irrigation (Yp) and drought stress (Ys) conditions were highly positively correlated with indices of mean productivity index (MP), geometric mean productivity (GMP), stress tolerance index (STI), yield index (YI), yield stability index (YSI), drought resistance Index (DI), harmonic mean (HM), and Golden mean (GOL). While they are highly negatively correlated with indices of SSI stress susceptibility index (SSI), stress tolerance index (TOL), yield reduction ratio (YR), stress susceptibility percentage index (SSPI) and abiotic tolerance index (ATI). Conclusions: The results indicated that salicylic acid, as a growth regulator, could be used to alleviate the harmful effect of inadequate water availability in soil on rice cultivars as well as improve the growth, water productivity and yield of the crop |
