Sorghum is cultivated all over the world to satisfy the needs of food, feed, fiber and industrial raw material. It is moderately tolerant to salinity and drought stress. The use of salt tolerant varieties is one best way to increase plant productivity in saline soils. Present research work was planned to determine the effect of NaCl on four sorghum genotyes (two salt tolerant i.e., Sandalbar and JS-2002; two salt sensitive i.e., Noor and FJ-115). Data indicated that salt stress adversely affected the magnesium and phophorus contents in shoots and roots of all the four genotypes. Maximum magnesium and phosphorus accumulation was recorded in Sandalbar genotype followed by Noor and the minimum occurred in the JS-2002 and FJ-115 sorghum genotypes in the case of shoots. The number of panicles/plant, grain weight/panicle, 1000 grain weight and grain yield/ plant were also reduced by the NaCl stress. The maximum number of panicles and grain weight per panicle was obtained in Sandalbar (2.13) followed by JS-2002 (2.0) and minimum number of panicles were present in FJ-115(1.96) under saline stress. The maximum 1000 grain weight decline was calculated in FJ-115 (69.3%) followed by Noor (46 %) and the least decrease was noted in Sandalbar (15.2 %) followed by JS-2002 (19.4 %) in sorghum genotypes. However, the effect of salt stress was less prominent on salt tolerant genotypes as compared to salt sensitive ones in all these yield componenets. It was concluded that Sandalbar sorghum genotype has a potential to be developed for seed and for biomass production at salinity stressed areas.
Key words: Sorghum, NaCl, magnessium, phosphorus,yield
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