Abstract |
Drought stress poses a major threat to food security due to the devastating effect during growth and development of plants and leads to yield loses in Africa, especially Botswana. Therefore, there is an increasing need in providing part of the solutions, and for crops like cowpea through drought tolerance identification and improvement programs. Therefore, identification of drought tolerant cowpea [ Vigna unguiculata (L). Walp)] genotypes based on morphological and physiological responses to water deficit was researched during 8-12 days imposition of drought stressed at vegetative stage using twenty cowpea genotypes under green house conditions. On these basis, two preliminary experiments followed by two major experiments were conducted at the Botswana College of Agriculture in 2014/2015 summer period. The preliminary experiments aimed at determining the suitable soil mixture for the entire experiment and the days required to reduce cowpea biomass yield to 50%, while the two major experiments intended to identify drought tolerance cowpea genotypes based on morphological (index) and physiological traits (gaseous exchange and chlorophyll content). The experiments were layout in a Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications and two treatments (well-watered and drought stressed) for the major experiments. |
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