Exploitation of the phenotypic diversity of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) for deficit soil moisture stress tolerance

Abstract

Safflower is an annual oilseed crop grown throughout the semi-arid regions under residual soil moisture. Under the present climatic scenarios, scarcity of water is frequent which is limiting crop yields. A series of field experiments were carried out during post rainy season of 2020-21 and 2021-22 to evaluate the genotype responses to terminal deficit soil moisture stress (DS). The phenotypic data generated in both the seasons revealed that, the huge genotypic difference among the genotypes were conferring tolerance to DS. The PCA analysis revealed that certain morpho-physiological traits viz., plant height, SPAD chlorophyll meter reading, relative water content, and days to 50% flowering accounted for maximum variation under deficit and residual soil moisture conditions.