SEED PRIMING WITH β-AMINOBUTYRIC ACID (BABA) IMPROVED PRODUCTION OF CHICKPEA GENOTYPES BY OPTIMIZING ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY UNDER DIFFERENT MOISTURE CONDITIONS

Chickpea is one of the drought tolerant leguminous crops mostly cultivated in the arid region of Pakistan. Global warming is the main cause of changing rainfall pattern in the arid regions, which indirectly affecting the production of chickpea. & beta;-aminobutyric acid (BABA) is known as the drought mitigating agent mostly used for boosting the production of drought susceptible plants. For checking the effect of BABA on the growth, yield and quality traits of chickpea cultivars against drought stress, a field experiment was conducted at the research field of B.Z.U. Bahadur Sub-Campus Layyah, Pakistan (latitude-32 & DEG;N, longitude 73 & DEG;E and altitude-184 msl) during rabi seasons 2016-17. For this purpose chickpea cultivars (Noor 2013 and Bhakkar 2011) were tested under irrigated as well as rainfed condition. Different doses of BABA (Dry seed, Hydropriming, 1 mM, 2 mM and 3 mM) were applied by seed priming method. Findings of this research study elaborate that irrigated condition enhanced all the growth and yield traits as well as total protein contents but decrease the antioxidants in comparison to the rainfed condition. Noor 2013 performed best by increasing germination count, no. of pods plant-1 , no. of seeds plant-1 , harvest index, days to anthesis, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase and total phenolic contents. Whereas, Bhakkar 2011 showed the highest performance for no. of primary branches per plant, biological yield, grain yield, thousand seed weight and total soluble protein. 2 mM of BABA is the best dose for all the growth and yield traits, while maximum antioxidant activity was found by the application of 3 mM of BABA. In short, cultivation of both chickpea cultivars should be promoted in irrigated areas. Priming with 2 and 3 mM of BABA is the best solution for minimizing the impact of moderate drought stress.