The efficiency of anti-transpirants in the enhancement of the physiology of Rapeseed var. GSC-07 (Brassica napus L.) under different water stress levels.

Rapeseed is a crucial crop in India, contributing 23.7% and 27% to oilseed acreage and production, respectively. With an estimated population of 1.32 billion, 21.12 million tonnes of edible oil are required, with about 20% to be met by rapeseed-mustard equivalent to 12.7 Mt. Water stress due to several factors is the limiting factor for increasing productivity. The main objective for performing this work is to evaluate the potential of anti-transpirants to study the underlying mechanism asserted by the anti-transpirants on the physiology of rapeseed. Three levels of stress were applied viz. Irrigation at 100% FC (Field Capacity), 75% FC and 50% FC. The research work was carried out in the agriculture field of Lovely Professional University. The experiment was carried out with 3 main plot treatments (Irrigation levels) and 5 sub-plot treatments (Anti-transpirants) carried out in three replications with 45 plots. The layout was split-plot design and statistical analysis was done using STATISTIX 10 and OPSTAT. After performing experiment, it has been observed that with increasing stress, reduced chlorophyll content, increased proline accumulation, and increased stomatal count per unit area of fresh leaf were observed. The least stress was observed due to the treatment of the crops with Kaolin 6% and as a result, lower proline accumulation, higher chlorophyll content, and lower stomata per unit area was observed. Plants treated with Kaolin 6% were observed to have higher nutrient (N, P and K) uptake. Whereas the same has been obtained in the crops treated with irrigation at 100% FC. The difference between the result obtained in irrigation at 100% FC and irrigation at 75% FC is less which indicates that increase in water availability was not too beneficial for the physiological development of the crop.