Impact of salinity on seed germination and biomass yields of field pea (Pasum satrium l.)

Salinity stress negatively affects seed germination and growth of different crops. There are reasonably adequate information on the effects of salinity on crops germination and emergence. However, scanty information is available on the impacts of salinity on crops biomass production during seedling growth. Thus, a series of two experiments: laboratory experiment to evaluate the effect of different salt concentration on seed germination percentage and germination rate of field pea and pot experiment to investigate the effect of salt on biomass yields of field pea were conducted. Both the experiments, laboratory and pot experiments, have six treatments (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 mM of salt concentration) and treatments were laid out in randomized complete design (CRD) with four and three replications respectively. The results revealed that the highest germination percentage and germination rate of 98 % and 2.15 seeds per day, respectively were scored from the control treatment. The highest plant height, leaf number, branch number and above ground dry biomass of 25.6 cm, 6.79 leaf per plant, 2.5 branch per plant and 1.93 g respectively were scored from control treatment that was statistically similar with 10 mM salt concentration, while the lowest value of these parameters were recorded from pots treated with 50 mM of salt concentrations . Therefore, salt content of irrigation water greater than 10 mM might reduce yields of field pea. However, the results presented here need to be confirmed through on farm research under various soil and agro climatic conditions.