Yield potential and salt tolerance of quinoa on salt-degraded soils of Pakistan

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Shahid Iqbal
  • Shahzad M.A. Basra
  • Irfan Afzal
  • Abdul Wahid
  • Muhammad S. Saddiq
  • Muhammad B. Hafeez
  • Sven Erik Jacobsen

Quinoa is recently introduced to Pakistan as a salt-tolerant crop of high nutritional value. Open field trials were conducted to evaluate its performance on normal and salinity/sodicity-degraded lands at two locations of different salinity/sodicity levels, S1 (UAF Farm, Normal Soil), S2 (Paroka Farm UAF, saline sodic), S3 (SSRI Farm, normal) and S4 (SSRI Farm, saline sodic) during 2013–2014. Two genotypes (Q-2 and Q-7) were grown in lines and were allowed to grow till maturity under RCBD split-plot arrangement. Maximum seed yield (3,062 kg/ha) was achieved by Q-7 at normal field (S1) soil which was statistically similar with yield of same genotype obtained from salt-affected field S2 (2,870 kg/ha). Furthermore, low yield was seen from both genotypes from both S3 and S4 as compared to S1 and S2. Q-7 was best under all four conditions. Minimum yield was recorded from Q-2 (1,587 kg/ha) at S4. Q-7 had higher SOD, proline, phenolic and K+ contents, and lower Na+ content in leaves as compared to Q-2. High levels of antioxidants and K+/Na+ of Q-7 helped to withstand salt stress and might be the cause of higher yields under both normal and salt-affected soils. Seed quality (mineral and protein) did not decrease considerably under salt-affected soils even improved seed K+, Mg2+ and Mn2+.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Agronomy and Crop Science
Volume205
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)13-21
Number of pages9
ISSN0931-2250
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2019

    Research areas

  • crop physiology, halophyte, saline, sodic

ID: 213622232