Abstract

Author:
Mohammad Moshiur Rahman, Subrina Akther, Shawon Mojumder, M M Abdur Razzaque, Antonia Yarbeh Tetteh, Md. Jewel Alam

Doi: 10.26480/sfna.01.2025.52.59

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Drought stress severely constraints mustard growth, physiology, yield, and oil quality in Bangladesh, making the identification of drought-tolerant genotypes crucial for sustaining production under climate change. This study was conducted at Shibganj Upazila, Bogura district, Bangladesh, during the 2023-2024 growing season to evaluate morphophysiological, biochemical, yield, and seed quality responses of eight BARI mustard genotypes under well-watered and drought stress conditions. The experiment followed a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications and two moisture regimes, totaling 48 plots. Data were recorded on plant height, primary branches, leaf area index (LAI), chlorophyll content, proline accumulation, siliques per plant, seeds per silique, siliqua length, 1000-seed weight, seed and biological yield, harvest index, oil content, and protein content. Drought significantly reduced vegetative growth, photosynthetic pigments, yield components, seed yield, and seed quality, while increasing proline accumulation. BARI Sarisha-16 consistently maintained higher chlorophyll content, proline accumulation, siliques plant⁻¹, 1000-seed weight, and seed yield (1.90 t ha⁻¹ under stress) with the lowest Drought Susceptibility Index (DSI = 0.55), followed by BARI Sarisha-11 and BARI Sarisha-13. In contrast, BARI Sarisha-10 and BARI Sarisha-12 exhibited high susceptibility and lowest yield stability. The findings suggest that BARI Sarisha-16 is a highly drought￾tolerant genotype with strong yield stability and seed quality under water-limited conditions. BARI Sarisha- 16 should be prioritized for drought-prone mustard-growing regions and considered in future breeding programs for drought tolerance improvement.