Seedling drought tolerance in Cenchrus ciliaris accessions of Indian Germplasm

Collection

Divya P Syamaladevi1,3* , S.S. Meena1

1
Western Regional Rsearch Station, Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Avikanagar,
Rajasthan, India
2
Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi, UttarPradesh, India
3
Currently at : Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad, India
*Corresponding Author Email: dpsdevi@gmail.com

Introduction
Cenchrus ciliaris (Buffel grass) commonly known as Anjan grass in India is well known for
its drought tolerance and are commonly seen in the arid and semiarid tracks of India, Pakisthan,
Africa and Australia. This is a preferred fodder grass in these regions. A large number of Cenchrus
germplasm is available at WRRS, Avikanagar and a comparative performance evaluation in
response to drought stress is necessary for crop improvement efforts in this crop. Though there have
been efforts to compare between the different species of this crop, there was hardly any attempt to
screen the performance of the different accessions of Cenchrus ciliaris in the seedling stage.
Screening for tolerance in the seedling stage is important as this affects the initial establishment and
survival of the crop. In this study we have screened and identified 20 Indian accessions with
relatively better tolerance in the seedling stage.
Materials and Methods
Drought tolerance of 92 Cenchrus ciliaris germplasm accessions at WRRS, Avikanagar were
tested in seedling trays by imposing water stress to 1 month old seedlings. The seedlings were
grown under 50% shade and under normal irrigation (to field capacity). One month old seedlings
were drought stressed by withholding irrigation and daily monitoring of the extent of drying and
leaf rolling. The experiments were conducted under the shade house conditions with five
replications and the check varieties used were IGFRI-727, IGFR-3108, CAZRI-75
Results and Discussion
Based on the number of days taken for complete drying of the seedlings 20 accessions were
selected for further screening. The accessions which were able to survive up to 5 days without
irrigation were considered as the most tolerant among the 92 accessions screened for drought
tolerance. Thus selected 20 accessions are IG 96-159, IG 96-365, IG 96-395, IG 96-418, IG 96419, IG 96-438,IG 96-451,IG 96-505, IG 96-531, IG 96-659, IG 96-664, IG 96-666, IG 96-713, IG
67-59-1, IG 67-358A, IG 67-358B, IG 67-360, IG 67-3813, IG 67-1263A, IG 99-141. The national
checks IGFRI-727, IGFR-3108, CAZRI-75 did not withstand 5 days of water deficit in the seedling

stage. During seedling stage many of the accessions among the selected 20 tolerant types showed
better seedling height or number of leaves (Figure 1). IG 96-419 and IG 96-531 are noticeably
better in the seedling stage when compared to the national checks. However the performance of
might show a different trend in other growth stages and even yield. This initial screening
experiment in nursery provides scope for further evaluation of the 20 germplasm accessions for
yield characteristics as well as tolerance behavior at other growth stages.

30

25

20

15
Seedling height (cm)
Number of leaves

10

CAZRI-75

IGFRI-721

IGFRI-3108

IG 358B

IG 67-1263A

IG67-358A

IG96-395

IG99-141

IG96-419

IG96-418

IG96-659

IG96-365

IG 96-713

IG 96-666

IG 96-664

IG 96-531

IG 96-505

IG 96-451

IG 96-438

IG 96-159

IG 67-3813

IG 67-360

IG 67-59-1

Figure 1 : Graph showing seedling height and number of leaves in the selected 20 accessions along
with the national checks.