Screening of chilli genotypes for drought tolerance

Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) is an important solanaceous crop highly susceptible to drought due its higher transpiring leaf surface, high stomatal conductance and low membrane integrity. The pot culture experiment to screen the 12 chilli genotypes for drought tolerance was conducted with two treatments with 100 % field capacity as control and 50 % field capacity as drought and screening was done on the basis of various parameters. The overall results revealed that the tolerant genotypes maintained higher level of cell membrane integrity, chlorophyll stability, osmolyte accumulation and low lipid peroxidation under drought. Among the genotypes, CA 176 showed its supremacy by maintaining higher chlorophyll content, relative water content, cell membrane integrity and lower lipid peroxidation followed by CA 183 in its performance under drought. On the other hand CA 45, CA 104 and CA 174 showed poor performance by being very sensitive to water stress with very low yield