Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
T3-01O-1297
Evaluation of Eggplant Wild Relatives, Landraces and Cultivars for Deficit
Moisture Stress Tolerance
K.T. Jayalakshmi, R.H. Laxman, S. Kannan, P. Hemamalini, K.S. Shivashankara and
T.H. Singh
ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru-560 089, India
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), also known as brinjal belonging to Solanaceae family is an
important vegetable grown in many tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Brinjal
cultivation in India is estimated to cover about 8.14% of vegetable area with a contribution of
9% to total vegetable production. The crop is exposed to various biotic and abiotic stresses.
Among the abiotic stresses, deficit water stress is one the most serious environmental
constraints affecting productivity. Under climate change conditions more frequent, longer, and
intense drought spells would increase the scarcity of irrigation water. A series of consequent
physiological or biochemical adjustments would bring in enhancement of the plant defence
against deficit water stress (Kapoor et al., 2020) Identification of deficit moisture stress tolerant
cultivars in eggplant is very important to realize sustainable production and judicious use of
available water (Gobu et al., 2017). Significant differences among hundred varieties of
eggplant and its wild relatives, for morphological and physiological characteristics, under
drought stress condition were observed (Delfin et al., 2013). There are possibilities of selection
of drought resistant eggplant varieties. Brinjal can also be used as rootstock as it provides root
system to scions of tomato for enhancing tolerance to abiotic stresses. Eggplant is employed as
an important rootstock because of its tolerance to biotic and abiotic factors. However,
evaluation needs to be done for exploring the possibility of identifying and characterizing
deficit water stress tolerant genotypes having better root characteristics. Thus, the present study
was conducted with an objective to evaluate the diverse genotypes of eggplant wild relatives,
land races and cultivars for deficit moisture stress tolerance and consequently identify the
tolerant genotypes.
Methodology
Thirty-four eggplant genotypes were evaluated under 100 per cent field capacity up to 45 DAT.
Based on the mean membership function value (MFV) for root characteristics, such as root
length, root volume and root density and root dry weight, six genotypes with better root
characteristics, viz., Arka Neelkanth, Arka Anand, Kheri Sindhi, Erengeri Local, Solanum
macrocarpon, Solanum torvum and three genotypes, Solanum seaforthianum, Solanum
insanum and Solanum acculeatissimum JRPH/15-008 with poor root characteristics were
selected for further studies under two water regimes, viz., control (100% FC) and water deficit
335 | Page Managing genetic resources for enhanced stress tolerance