Vol. 12, Issue 2 (2023)

Author(s):
Sruba Saha, Arghya Banerjee, Trisha Manna, Shobhanika Barik and Sushil Kumar Kothari

Abstract:
Water stress and salinity are two major abiotic stresses due to their wide occurrence and high magnitude of their impact. Both affects plant growth and crop production directly. Salt stress affects plant growth in three different ways: reduction of soil water potential called osmotic stress, causing an ionic imbalance in cells and lastly ion toxicity. So it can be said soil salinity and water stress are complementary to each other. To evaluates the effects of soil salinity on sesame varieties at germination stage and seedling height, a study was conducted at the research farm of School of Agriculture and Allied Sciences (SAAS), The Neotia University pre-kharif season 2022. The data were taken on germination (%), seedling height along with other agro-morphological traits. The germination (%) and seedling height for all the genotypes were significantly affected by soil salinity. The study showed that the germination rate and seedling height for variety Piyur (75.21% and 12.36 cm, respectively) dropped significantly than other sesame varieties. Overall the result indicated that salt stress adversely effect on germination as well as seedling height on studied varieties of sesame. It was recommended the variety Tillarani and Amrit would be the most suitable for south 24 parganas, West Bengal, where, mild to moderate soil salinity is the major abiotic stress.