Effect of Moisture Stress on Dry Matter Production, Dry Matter Partitioning and yield in Groundnut ( Arachis hypogea L.) Genotypes

Background: Drought is a leading abiotic factor limiting groundnut production globally. Therefore, the screening and development of moisture stress tolerant groundnut genotypes is a key issue towards sustainable agriculture. Methods: An experiment was laid in a split plot design taking two conditions, control (T1) 1 ) and moisture stress (T2) 2 ) as main treatments and 7 genotypes of groundnut as sub treatments. Several morpho-physiological traits like dry matter production, dry matter partitioning, photosynthetic traits, relative water content, were measured after 10 days of stress imposition. Yield and yield attributes were also recorded at harvest along with drought tolerance index and principal component analysis. Result: Results showed significant differences among the genotypes at moisture stress and control conditions. Significant decrease was observed in chlorophyll content, total dry matter production, dry matter partitioning efficiency, relative water content, photosynthetic traits, except specific leaf area among all the genotypes. TCGS-1694 have been identified as moisture stress-tolerant genotypes in principal component analysis with higher efficiency interms of total dry matter production, photosynthetic rate, dry matter partitioning to pods, stress tolerance index, yield and yield attributes while Kadiri-6 has been identified as susceptible genotype.