Abstract

Field experiment was carried out at the Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai-for two years (1990, 1991 during summer season to study the effect of moisture stress on soybean in terms of growth and yield and to quantify the stress effect on different growth stages of soybean. The results revealed that peak flowering stage was found to be the most sensitive stage for moisture stress resulting in a yield loss accounting to 13.0 and 20.7 per cent in 90 and 91 respectively. Of the stress alleviating materials, kaolin at 3% as foliar spray or liquid paraffin at 1% foliar spray could be used to mitigate the stress effect.

Keywords: Irrigation régimes, moisture conservation, physiological stages, kaolin, liquid paraffin, Jalsakthi