Abstract

Salinization of cultivated land is increasing globally due to saline water irrigation and inherent soil salinity. A considerable variation in salinity tolerance of maize hybrids was reported widely hence selection of tolerant maize hybrids to saline water irrigation is of great significance in utilising saline water for irrigation. The present study was conducted to identify the maize hybrids tolerant to saline water irrigation under green house condition. Six maize hybrids were chosen and irrigated with saline water having varied inherent salinity levels (0.6, 3.2, 4.8, 6.7 and 8.9 dS m-1) and grown on Alfisol for 30 days. Plant growth attributes and gas exchange parameters were recorded on 30 day after sowing and significant variations were observed among the genotypes for different salinity levels. Increasing levels of irrigation water salinity decreased the plant growth attributes, photosynthetic activity and dry matter production of all maize hybrids. However, TNAU Maize hybrid CO 6 registered higher dry matter production and photosynthetic activity with better stress tolerance index (76.8%). All the maize hybrids tolerated the irrigation water salinity upto 3.2 dS m-1 while TNAU maize hybrid CO 6 thrives well even upto 4.8 dS m-1, which indicated its efficiency to tolerate water salinity.

Keywords: Saline water, Maize, Salt tolerance, Growth attributes, Photosynthetic efficiency