The threat of varying global climates has greatly
driven the attention of scientists, as climate change increases the
odds of worsening drought in many parts of Pakistan and the world
in the decades ahead. Keeping in view the forthcoming climate
change, the present study aimed to evaluate the influence of
varying levels of induced drought stress on the physiological
mechanism of drought resistance in selected maize cultivars. The
sandy loam rhizospheric soil with moisture content 0.43−0.5 g g−1,
organic matter (OM) 0.43−0.55 g/kg, N 0.022−0.027 g/kg, P
0.028−0.058 g/kg, and K 0.017−0.042 g/kg was used in the
present experiment. The findings showed that a significant drop in
the leaf water status, chlorophyll content, and carotenoid content
was linked to an increase in sugar, proline, and antioxidant enzyme
accumulation at p < 0.05 under induced drought stress, along with an increase in protein content as a dominant response for both
cultivars. SVI-I & II, RSR, LAI, LAR, TB, CA, CB, CC, peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) content under drought
stress were studied for variance analysis in terms of interactions between drought and NAA treatment and were found significant at p
< 0.05 after 15 days. It has been found that the exogenous application of NAA alleviated the inhibitory effect of only short-term
water stress, but yield loss due to long-term osmotic stress will not be faced employing growth regulators. Climate-smart agriculture
is the only approach to reduce the detrimental impact of global fluctuations, such as drought stress, on crop adaptability before they
have a significant influence on world crop production. |
