CYTOKININ AND GIBBERELLIC ACID ALLEVIATE THE EFFECT OF WATERLOGGING IN MUNGBEAN (VIGNA RADIATA L. WILCZEK)

Recently, waterlogging damage of mungbean is most common in many mungbean growing areas of the world. The exogenous application of phytohormones cytokinin (CK) and gibberellic acid (GA) could be an effective way of managing mungbean under waterlogging stress. Therefore, we applied different levels of CK and GA at the onset of waterlogging and ten days after waterlogging, and the results were observed in waterlogged plants as compared to control. The CK and GA application showed much improvement in depressed morpho-physiological and yield-related traits and seed yield. However, the responses varied depending on the types and doses of CK and GA. The plant height and the number of leaves were higher in GA-applied plants than CK-treated plants. The GA responded more in shoot growth, whereas CK in root development under waterlogged situations. The application of CK at 150 mg/L displayed the highest 33.9% yield advantage. It reveals that exogenous CK could be a good management practice in areas prone to waterlogging stress for attaining better yield in mungbean.