Abstract
Maize (Zea mays L.) plays an important role in the global food security, but its production is threatened by climate change, especially drought stress. Potassium (K) and zinc (Zn) are considered useful to mitigate the negative consequences of drought stress in plants. Therefore, the objective of this two-year study was to identify the best combination of K and Zn application to improve the water relations, photosynthetic pigments, yield, irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) and grain quality of maize sown under mild and severe drought stress conditions. The consisted of three drought stress levels viz. 1) well-watered as control (WW), 2) mild drought (MD) with 25 mm of potential soil moisture deficit (PSMD), 3) severe drought (SD) with 50 mm of PSMD and six K-Zn treatments: i.e. 125, 100 and 150 kg ha−1 K with 0 and 12 kg ha−1 Zn. The results indicated that K-Zn application improved the water relations and chlorophyll contents, biological yield and grain quality, irrespective of water stress treatment. The combined application of K-Zn under mild drought stress produced statistically same biological yield and grain quality as under well-irrigated without K-Zn fertilization and also produced compratively higher IWUE, biological yield and grain quality under sverer drought stress. Hence, the application of K at 150 kg ha−1 in combination with Zn at 12 kg ha−1 might be useful to improve the maize production and grain quality under drought stress. As IWUE was low in WW conditions, therefore, irrigation scheduling must be re-evaluated for optimum water use efficiency.
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Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
K-Zn improved maize water relations and chlorophyll under all water stress levels.
- Treatment
- K-Zn applicatione0
- Outcome
- water relations and chlorophyll contentse0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Qualifier
- irrespective of water stress treatmente0
Zea maysNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“K-Zn application improved the water relations and chlorophyll contents, biological yield and grain quality, irrespective of water stress treatment.”
t0“Maize”
Claim · model-written summary
K-Zn improved biological yield and grain quality across water stress treatments.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“K-Zn application improved the water relations and chlorophyll contents, biological yield and grain quality, irrespective of water stress treatment.”
t0“Maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Combined K-Zn under mild drought gave statistically the same biological yield and grain quality as well-irrigated unfertilized maize.
- Treatment
- combined application of K-Zn under mild drought stresse0
- Outcome
- biological yield and grain qualitye0
- Direction
- statistically samee0
- Comparator
- well-irrigated without K-Zn fertilizatione0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The combined application of K-Zn under mild drought stress produced statistically same biological yield and grain quality as under well-irrigated without K-Zn fertilization”
t0“Maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Combined K-Zn under severe drought produced higher IWUE, biological yield and grain quality.
- Treatment
- combined application of K-Znt1
- Outcome
- IWUE, biological yield and grain qualitye0
- Direction
- compratively highere0
- Qualifier
- under sverer drought stresse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“also produced compratively higher IWUE, biological yield and grain quality under sverer drought stress.”
t0“Maize”
t1“combined application of K-Zn”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors suggest 150 kg ha−1 K with 12 kg ha−1 Zn for maize production and grain quality under drought.
- Treatment
- application of K at 150 kg ha−1 in combination with Zn at 12 kg ha−1e0
- Outcome
- maize production and grain qualitye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the application of K at 150 kg ha−1 in combination with Zn at 12 kg ha−1 might be useful to improve the maize production and grain quality under drought stress.”
Claim · model-written summary
IWUE was low in well-watered conditions.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“IWUE was low in WW conditions”
t0“Maize”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend reevaluating irrigation scheduling for water use efficiency.
- Outcome
- irrigation scheduling must be re-evaluated for optimum water use efficiencye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“irrigation scheduling must be re-evaluated for optimum water use efficiency.”
t0“Maize”
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drought · quality: grain · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
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