Abstract:
Water scarcity is one of the main constrains of agriculture sector development in dry zone of Sri
Lanka. Therefore, identifying water efficient crops for dry zone agriculture is timely important.
Groundnut is grown in the Batticaloa district to a limited extent where the yield is highly
affected by moisture stress especially during ‘Yala’ Season. The experiment was carried out to
evaluate the impact of moisture stress on yield of three groundnut cultivars (Lanka jumbo, Tissa
and Indi) at agronomy farm of the Eastern University, Sri Lanka during ‘Yala’2017. The stress
conditions were imposed during the flowering stage. Polyethylene bags (45cm diameter and
42cm height) filled with top soil, red soil and compost 1:1:1 potting mixture was used to grow
plants. This experiment was set up according to randomized complete block design with four
replications and the treatments were arranged in 3 × 2 factor factorial manner. Moisture stress
was imposed for the selected groundnut cultivars for a period of ten days during the flowering
stage. The control plants received water once in two days up to field capacity. Measured
physiological and growth attributes under moisture stressed condition were
significantly(p<0.05) different between treatments but there were no significant (p>0.05)
interaction between stress factor and cultivar. The highest relative water content (71.6 %) was
obtained in Indi while the lowest (52.2 %) was found in Tissa. The highest chlorophyll a
(0.98mgg-1) and chlorophyll b(0.79mgg-1) were recorded in Indi and the lowest (0.47 mgg-1 and
0.36 mgg-1) was found in Tissa. Cultivar Indi recorded the highest plant dry weight (127.8 g)
while Tissa recorded the lowest (90.9g) under moisture stressed condition. The highest yield
(0.8 tha-1) was obtained in Indi and the lowest (0.3 tha-1) was found in Tissa. According to the
results, it can be concluded that cultivar Indi performed more efficiently under moisture stress
conditions compared to other cultivars hence, could be used in drought prone areas of Batticaloa
district.
