article · Plants
Water scarcity and high costs necessitate water-saving practices in agriculture, particularly when cultivating crops in saline sodic soils. A two-season field study examined the effects of biochar and salicylic acid, applied alone or together, on wheat exposed to varying levels of available soil moisture depletion. Results indicated that biochar improved soil characteristics, plant physiology, and yield under deficit irrigation. The combined treatment of biochar and salicylic acid produced the strongest positive response, boosting photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll content, relative water content, nutrient uptake, and grain yield, while decreasing sodium accumulation and stress markers. When managed with the combined treatment at seventy percent soil moisture depletion, wheat productivity matched the levels observed at fifty percent depletion in untreated plots, demonstrating effective mitigation of water and salt stress.
Drought and soil salinity frequently limit wheat production in arid environments, threatening staple food supplies. Demonstrating that affordable soil amendments and foliar sprays can protect yields under reduced irrigation offers a viable path to conserving scarce freshwater resources. This approach allows agricultural producers to maintain crop productivity while lowering overall irrigation water requirements in challenging soil environments.
This work demonstrates an applied, field-tested management strategy relevant to wheat growers, farm managers, and agricultural extension services operating in arid, saline regions. The inputs used, biochar and salicylic acid, are existing agricultural commodities, placing the practice relatively close to operational deployment. Further uptake would depend on local input availability, standardisation of application guidelines, and cost-benefit assessments comparing amendment costs against water savings and yield gains.
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Given the expectancy of the water supply becoming scarce in the future and more expensive, water conservation during wheat production processes has become very crucial especially in saline sodic soil. Biochar and salicylic acid (SA) were used to assess the potential to alleviate the influences of depletion of available soil moisture (DAM) on physicochemical, physiological, biochemical attributes, as well as wheat production absorption (<i>Triticum aestivum</i> L. cv. Misr 1) and macro-elements. Two seasons (2018/2019 and 2019/2020) of field trials were investigated using twelve combinations of three water treatments (50%, 70%, and 90% DAM) and foliar- and soil-applied treatments (control, biochar, salicylic acid, and biochar + SA). Biochar treated plots amplified soil physicochemical attributes, leading to improved physiological traits and antioxidant enzymes, as well as yield related traits under water limitation conditions in both years. Similarly, synergistic use of biochar and salicylic acid greatly augmented the designed characteristics such as chlorophyll a, b, K<sup>+</sup> content, relative water content (RWC), stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rate, and intrinsic water use efficiency, whilst exhibited inhibitory effects on proline content, electrolyte leakage, Na<sup>+</sup> content SOD, POX, CAT, and MDA, consequently increased 1000-grain weight, number of grains spike<sup>-1</sup>, grain yield, as well nutrient uptake (N, P, K) under water limitation condition in both years, followed by treatment of sole biochar or SA compared to unamended plots treatment (control). Wheat productivity achieved further increasing at 70% DAM alongside synergistic use of biochar and SA which was on par with 50% DAM under unamended plots (control). It is concluded from the findings that coupled application of biochar alongside salicylic acid accomplished an efficient approach to mitigate the injurious influences of water limitation, along with further improvement of the soil, physiology, biochemical attributes, and wheat yield, as well nutrient uptake, under saline sodic soil.
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DOI: 10.3390/plants9101346
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