Evaluation of indigenous Omani alfalfa landraces for morphology and forage yield under different levels of salt stress
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Evaluation of indigenous Omani alfalfa landraces for morphology and forage yield under different levels of salt stress Safaa Mohammed Al-Farsi1,2 • Saleem K. Nadaf3 • Abdullah M. Al-Sadi1 Aman Ullah1 • Muhammad Farooq1
•
Received: 15 April 2020 / Revised: 22 June 2020 / Accepted: 24 July 2020 Ó Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society 2020
Abstract Alfalfa is the major fodder crop of Sultanate Oman, but salinity is a major problem in its cultivation. Therefore, thirty-four alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) landraces of Oman were evaluated for morphology and forage yield response to different salinity levels viz. 1 (control), 3, 6, 9, and 12 dS m-1 under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was conducted under a completely randomized design. Different alfalfa landraces responded differently to the five salinity levels for plant height, number of branches, number of leaves, leaflet width, leaflet length, forage fresh weight, and forage dry matter yield. Salt stress caused a reduction in growth and dry matter yield of alfalfa landraces with exception of some, which responded positively to the salinity levels of 3 and 6 dS m-1 compared to control for the number of leaves per plant. Moreover, some landraces had better forage fresh weight and dry matter yield at 6 dS m-1 than 3 dS m-1. Alfalfa landraces OMA 257, OMA, 245, OMA 270, OMA 315, OMA 211, OMA 117, OMA 56, OMA 239, OMA 148, OMA 131, OMA 95, OMA 263, OMA 262, OMA 289 and OMA 220 were
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-020-00856-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Muhammad Farooq [email protected] 1
Department of Plant Sciences, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khoud 123, Muscat, Oman
2
Directorate General of Agriculture and Livestock Research, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Al-Seeb 121, Muscat, Oman
3
Oman Animal and Plant Genetic Resources Center, The Research Council, Muscat, Oman
designated as salt tolerant based on their overall performance across salinity levels of 6, 9 and 12 dS m-1. However, the landraces OMA 305, OMA 100, OMA 211, OMA 148, OMA 60, OMA 248, OMA 9, OMA 88, and OMA 302 collected were sensitive to 6, 9 and 12 dS m-1 salinity stress. The study showed the variation of alfalfa landraces potential for salinity tolerance, and their potential for cultivation in saline areas and/or use in breeding programs aimed to develop salt tolerant alfalfa genotypes. Keywords Alfalfa Accessions Branches Forage yield Leaflet Salinity
Introduction Worldwide, soil salinity is a limiting factor in terms of decreasing agricultural production. An FAO report of ‘FAO Land and Plant Nutrition Management Service’ declared 6% (400 Mha) of the world’s land as salt affected or sodic (Parihar et al. 2015). Recent data indicated that of a total of 230 Mha irrigated land, 45 Mha (19.5%) are saline, while out of 1,500 Mha of dryland, 32 Mha (2.1%) is salt affected (Pariha
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