Screening of Arjun (Terminalia arjuna) Accessions based on Drought Tolerance Indices under various Environmental conditions

Author: Pandiaraj T.*, Harendra Yadav, Manjappa and D.K. Singh

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Abstract

Tasar silkworm (Antheraea mylitta) primarily feeds a dozen of food plants. Of which, Arjun (Terminalia arjuna) is a major food plant growing largely in rainfed condition. Often, the Arjun plant is growing under water stress condition during most part of the growing period causes considerable reduction in leaf quality and yield which in turns to affect the Tasar cocoon quality and yield. With the aim of screening the most potential accessions of arjun (Terminal arjuna) plant for drought environmental conditions, a study was conducted in factorial experimental design under two stress environmental conditions i.e., stress and non-stress in 2016-2018. Nine different drought tolerance/resistance indices comprising stress tolerance index (STI), mean production (MP), geometric mean production (GMP), tolerance index (TOL), stress susceptibility index (SSI), yield stability index (YSI), relative drought index (RDI), drought resistance index (DI) and yield index (YI) were evaluated on the basis

Keywords

Drought, Indices, Ranking, Tasar, Terminalia arjuna.

Conclusion

The results of this study concluded that all indices of drought tolerance and resistance except RDI and YSI showed highest correla¬tion with leaf yield in both stress and non-stress environments representing great suitability of these indices for identification of tolerant accessions. Identifying drought tolerant accessions based on ranking method indicated accessions 525, 123, 135 and 523 as the best drought tolerant. Hence, it could be recommended as used as parents for breeding of drought toler¬ance in the desired accessions. Besides, this study revealed that among drought tolerance indices MP, STI, GMP, YSI, TOL, RDI, DI and YI can be used as the best suitable criteria for selecting drought tolerant accessions for T. arjuna.

References

INTRODUCTION Arjun (Terminalia arjuna) is one of the most important food plants for tasar silkworm (Antheraea mylitta) in which its leaf yield is on average 3 to 5 kg/ha. The Arjun plant is widely distributed over India. Tasar silkworm feeds a dozen of plant species of different families; however, it favours the leaves of T. tomentosa (Asan), T. arjuna (Arjun) and Shorea robusta (Sal) and are believed as primary food plants. India is the only land producing all the five industrially developed silks namely Mulberry silk, Eri, tropical and temperate/Oak Tasar and Muga silk. Of which, Tasar silk is mainly produced in many Indian states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra. Tasar sericulture has huge potential of providing employment opportunities to a great tribal population with little investment. Around 3.0 lakh families, mostly tribals, are dependent on the industry (CSB, 2017). The Arjun plant is widely grown as rainfed in arid

How to cite this article

Pandiaraj T., Harendra Yadav, Manjappa and D.K. Singh (2022). Screening of Arjun (Terminalia arjuna) Accessions based on Drought Tolerance Indices under various Environmental conditions. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(1): 1521-1525.