Agro-Physiological Responses of Different Peal Millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) Cultivars to Water Deficit in Kerman Climatic Conditions

Cultivar selection is one of the most important factors to obtain maximum yield, based on the climatic conditions of each region. Drought is one of the environmental stresses that causes adverse effects on most stages of plant growth, structure and its activities. To investigate the agro-physiological responses of different pearl millet cultivars (Hybrid 1, Hybrid 2, IP13150, IP13151, IP22269, ICMV5222, HHVBCTA) to two levels of irrigation (100% and 60% of field capacity) an split plot experiment based on randomized complete block design was done in Kerman climatic conditions. The results showed that the simple effect of irrigation treatment and also simple effect of cultivar as well as the interaction of irrigation×cultivar were significant for all traits, except for relative water content and chlorophyll index. Decreasing the value of irrigation water from 100% to 60% of field capacity, caused significantly reduction of chlorophyll index (20.87%) and relative humidity content (29.06%). Drought stress increased proline content in all cultivars and the highest one was obtained from HHVBCTA under this condition. The results showed that the highest values of plant height, leaf area index, fresh and dry forage yield under normal irrigation and also drought stress conditions were obtained from Hybrid 1 and IP13151 cultivars, respectively. According to the comparison results of interaction, the lowest and highest percentage reduction of fresh forage of the due to drought stress were related to IP13151 (13.16%) and Hybrid 2 (61.58%), respectively. Generally, according to the obtained results, Hybrid 1 and IP13151 cultivars are suitable for planting in Kerman climatic region under normal and stress conditions, respectively.