Accelerating Seed Germination and Juvenile Growth of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) to Manage Climate Variability through Hydro-Priming

    Dembélé, S and Zougmoré, R B and Coulibaly, A and Lamers, J P A and Tetteh, J P (2021) Accelerating Seed Germination and Juvenile Growth of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) to Manage Climate Variability through Hydro-Priming. Atmosphere (TSI), 12 (4). pp. 1-14. ISSN 2073-4433

    [img] PDF - Published Version
    Download (306kB)

    Abstract

    Agriculture in Mali, a country in SahelianWest Africa, strongly depends on rainfall and concurrently has a low adaptive capacity, making it consequently one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change worldwide. Since early-season drought limits crop germination, and hence growth, ultimately yield during rain-fed depending on production is commonly experienced nowadays in Mali. Germination and establishment of key crops such as the staple sorghum could be improved by seed priming. The effects of hydro-priming with different water sources (e.g., distilled, tap, rain, river, well water) were evaluated respectively for three priming time durations in tepid e.g., at 25C (4, 8, and 12 h) and by hot water at 70C (in contrast to 10, 20, and 30 min.) in 2014 and 2015. Seed germination and seedling development of nine sorghum genotypes were monitored. Compared to non-primed seed treatments, hydro-priming significantly [p = 0.01] improved final germination percentage, germination rate index, total seedling length, root length, root vigor index, shoot length, and seedling dry weight. The priming with water from wells and rivers resulted in significant higher seed germination (85%) and seedling development, compared to the three other sources of water. Seed germination rate, uniformity, and speed were enhanced by hydro-priming also. It is argued that hydro-priming is a safe and simple method that effectively improve seed germination and seedling development of sorghum. If used in crop fields, the above most promising genotypes may contribute to managing early season drought and avoid failure of seed germination and crop failure in high climate variability contexts.

    Item Type: Article
    Divisions: Research Program : West & Central Africa
    CRP: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
    Uncontrolled Keywords: Hydro-priming, Sorghum, Resilience, Early season drought, Semi-arid, West Africa
    Subjects: Others > Climate Adaptation
    Others > Drought Tolerance
    Others > Semi-Arid Tropics
    Mandate crops > Sorghum
    Others > West Africa
    Depositing User: Mr Arun S
    Date Deposited: 27 May 2021 11:18
    Last Modified: 27 May 2021 11:22
    URI: http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/11824
    Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12040419
    Projects: UNSPECIFIED
    Funders: UNSPECIFIED
    Acknowledgement: The authors express their gratitude to the University of Cape Coast, IPR/IFRA of Katibougou, ZEF and ICRISAT for all technical support. We also would like to gratefully acknowledge the facilities provided by the Agricultural Research Station of Cinzana, Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER) of Mali in this study. The assistance of Technicians in field measurements is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are in particular grateful to Guido Luechters from ZEF for his support in all statistical analyses conducted by the corresponding author.
    Links:
    View Statistics

    Actions (login required)

    View Item View Item
    Altmetric
    OAR@ICRISAT is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.