ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Study on the Effect of Hydrogel and Chitosan on the Growth and Productivity of Wheat under Drought Condition

To investigate the protective function of additional soil application of hydrogel on the soil and foliar application of chitosan on wheat under non-irrigated water stress condition an experiment was conducted at the research field of Crop Physiology and Ecology Department, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. Five growing conditions (well water, water stress, soil application of hydrogel (5 kg ha^-1), foliar application (90 ppm) of chitosan and combined application of hydrogel and chitosan under water stress, respectively) were set up as the main plot treatment and two wheat varieties (Shatabdi and BARI Gom-28) were set up as sub plot treatment. Interaction effect of growing conditions and wheat varieties significantly influenced the grain yield and yield attributes of wheat. But thier effect on the phenological stages was not significant except physiological maturity. Maximum plant height, number of spikes plant^-1,spike length, number of spikelets spike^-1, number of grains spike^-1, thousand grain weight, biological yield, grain yield and harvest index were observed under well water condition. Non-irrigated water stress significantly reduced grain yield and yield attributes, whereas application of hydrogel and chitosan improved these traits under water stress condition. But the combined application of hydrogel and chitosan was found more effective and BARI Gom-28 responded better in these regard. Exogenous application of hydrogel and chitosan separately had a positive effect on different studied traits of wheat under drought condition. Exogenous application of both hydrogel and chitosan helped both the wheat varieties to perform better and to give higher yield (4.40 and 4.96 tha^-1 in Shatabdi and BARI Gom-28, respectively) under non-irrigated water stress condition.