Effect of carbon dioxide and cytokine foliar spray On yield and grain quality of bread Wheat (triticum aestivum l.)

Abstract

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the important cereal grain crops cultivated worldwide. Wheat is grown on more land area than any other crop in the world. World trade for wheat is greater than for any other cereal. Ethiopia is the second largest wheat producer in sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa and also among the most important crops in Ethiopia, ranking fourth in total cereals production. The demand for wheat is highly increased with the increasing population number and urban expansion. However currently the production of wheat and productivity become difficult due to climate change. Therefore the objective of these studies were to increase the productivity and the production of wheat under variable climate change by applying CO2 and Cytokine foliar spray at different growth stages on grain yield and grain quality of bread wheat (Digalu), studies were conducted both under field and control environment at Mana distinct and Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine in (2014 and 2015) respectively. Carbon dioxide and cytokine were applied at rate of 680mmole and 100mmole respectively at different stage (tillering stage, heading stage and seed filling stage) and Randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications were used. The results showed that in both case (in control environment and open field),the number of tiller, days to 50% heading, days to 90% physiological maturity, plant height, spike length, number of seed per plant, biomass, grain yield and Harvest Index (HI) were highly significantly (p<0.01) affected by the effects of Carbon dioxide, whereas, number of tiller, grain nitrogen content, straw nitrogen content, nitrogen uptake efficiency, nitrogen utilization efficiency, nitrogen use efficiency, grain protein content and grain thousand weight were highly significantly (p<0.01) affected by cytokine. Furthermore, the combination of carbon dioxide and cytokine at different stages (Tillering, flowering & seed filling) highly significantly affected, days to heading, days to maturity height of plant, thousand kernels weight, number of effective tillers, biomass yield, number of kernels per spike, harvest index, protein content, nitrogen uptake efficiency, nitrogen utilization efficiency, nitrogen use efficiency and grain yield. The application of both carbon dioxide and cytokine at tillering stages on wheat in green house and under field conditions resulted in highest tiller number (7) and (5.5) respectively, the maximum biomass yield (15.68 ton ha-1 & 14.8o ton ha-1 ) were both in green house and under field condition due to the foliar application of both carbon dioxide & cytokine at flowering stages, protein content (16.75% & 16.76%) and grain yields were (13.44 ton ha–1 & 11.88 ton ha-1 ) at flowering stages respectively. From this study, the use of both carbon dioxide and cytokine at wheat flowering stage (Digalu) was identified for good crop stand, high grain yield and seed quality. Therefore to ensure further research will be important for fundamental understanding of the effect of carbon dioxide and cytokine foliar spray on yield and grain quality on bread wheat in different location.