GROWTH AND YIELD PERFORMANCE OF EGGPLANT UNDER DROUGHT AND WATERLOGGING CONDITION

Abstract

The production of eggplant is reduced due to climate change induced by major abiotic stresses like drought and waterlogging. So, the objective of this study is to explore the influences of drought and waterlogging conditions on morphological, physiological and yield attributes of the eggplant. The experiment was laid out by two factors Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications and comprised of three eggplant varieties with three treatment combinations Control (T 1 ), Drought (T 2 ) and Waterlogging (T 3 ). From the results it was found that both drought and waterlogging have affected significantly and reduced the morphological, physiological and yield of eggplant. BARI Begun-5 has been affected more with the treatments, whereas the Purple King showed the reverse trend. It was found that purple king revealed higher plant height (36.52 cm at 65 DAT), leaf number (35), SPAD value (57.4 SPAD value at 67 DAT) and fruit yield (1.48 Kg per pot) under control condition than in drought and waterlogging condition. Therefore, Purple King variety performed best both in drought and waterlogging condition.