Screening for Drought Tolerance in Cowpea (Vignaungiculata(L) Walp) At Seedling and Flowering Stages Under Screen House Condition: Selecting for Recovery Ability Traits
Abstract
Prolonged drought of cowpea at the seedling stage can affect survival and productivity. One of the most important screening techniques used in cowpea selection for drought tolerance is screening at the seedling and flowering stages. This study sought to evaluate cowpea genotypes for their resistance to seedling and flowering stages during drought stress. Twenty four accessions of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) were collected from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria and Seed center, University of Agriculture, Makurdi to evaluated for their drought tolerance at seedling stages at preliminary trial. Fourteen were selected as the accessions proved to be tolerant and were further used The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications at the screen house of the Department of Crop Production Technology of College of Agriculture, Science and Technology Lafia, Nasarawa stata, Nigeria. Drought stress was imposed for 3 and 5 weeks after the full expansion of the first trifoliate leaf and first flower initiation. Soil Plant Analysis Development (SPAD) chlorophyll meter readings of unifoliate, first, and second trifoliate leaves of each genotype was measured on a weekly basis due to the predictive ability of chlorophyll content on drought tolerance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed high significant differences among accessions for wilting and recovery traits, stomatal conductance, relative water content (RWC), terminal leaflet length (TLL) and width (TLW), stem girth, and yield parameters under drought stress. AC02, AC04, AC07 and AC14 were observed to be highly susceptible. AC04, ACO6 and AC11 were moderately susceptible. AC03 and AC09 were moderately tolerant, while AC10 and AC12 were the highly tolerant accessions. The moderately tolerant and the highly tolerant accessions showed a combination of superior resistance to wilting, superior recovery rates, and superior yield attributes. Accessions that showed high tolerance and great variability can be used as parents in future for breading programmes.
Keywords
Cowpea Accessions, Vigna ungiculata, drought tolerance, Recover traits and Heritability.
Citations
IRE Journals:
Abimiku, Obed Enab, Ndor, Emmanuel, Aliyu, Daniel "Screening for Drought Tolerance in Cowpea (Vignaungiculata(L) Walp) At Seedling and Flowering Stages Under Screen House Condition: Selecting for Recovery Ability Traits" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 9 Issue 4 2025 Page 1228-1241 https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I4-1711450-5354
IEEE:
Abimiku, Obed Enab, Ndor, Emmanuel, Aliyu, Daniel
"Screening for Drought Tolerance in Cowpea (Vignaungiculata(L) Walp) At Seedling and Flowering Stages Under Screen House Condition: Selecting for Recovery Ability Traits" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 9(4) https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I4-1711450-5354
About IRE Journals
IRE Journals is an open access online journals established with an aim to publish high quality of research work in various diciplines. We have more than 6 years in publications. Over 2500+ papers already published.
Important Links
For Authors
Volume 8:
Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7, Issue 8, Issue 9, Issue 10, Issue 11, Issue 12Volume 7:
Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7, Issue 8, Issue 9, Issue 10, Issue 11, Issue 12Volume 6:
Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7, Issue 8, Issue 9, Issue 10, Issue 11, Issue 12Volume 5:
Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7, Issue 8, Issue 9, Issue 10, Issue 11, Issue 12Volume 4:
Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7, Issue 8, Issue 9, Issue 10, Issue 11, Issue 12Volume 3:
Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7, Issue 8, Issue 9, Issue 10, Issue 11, Issue 12