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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Assessment of physiological and biochemical responses of chilli (Capsicum annuum) varieties in floating bed cultivation for adaptation to waterlogged areas of Bangladesh

Md. Al-Imran A , Dipalok Karmaker A , Shawon Mitra A , Ishita Haider A , Md. Alimur Rahman B and Subroto K. Das https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2763-0232 A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Botany, University of Barishal, Barishal 8254, Bangladesh.

B Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Rahmatpur, Barishal, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Gazipur, Bangladesh.

* Correspondence to: mrsubroto@yahoo.com

Handling Editor: Ravinder Kumar

Functional Plant Biology 51, FP24084 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP24084
Submitted: 22 March 2024  Accepted: 22 July 2024  Published: 20 August 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Chilli (Capsicum annuum) is an important spice crop in Bangladesh. This crop is very sensitive to waterlogging. Floating agriculture is an innovative system led by the local people of the southern region of Bangladesh, in which seedlings of vegetables are produced in low-lying areas using different aquatic macrophytes. An experiment was carried out to evaluate the viability of chilli cultivation in waterlogged areas, based on physiological and biochemical responses using floating agriculture. Eight different chilli varieties were subjected to floating agriculture in two different agronomic seasons. A soil-based chilli cultivation system was also trialled, to compare the utility of this method. To evaluate the performance of chilli in floating beds, plant water status, photosynthetic parameters, and leaf tissue concentrations of Na+, K+, NO3 and PO43−, chlorophyll, ascorbic acid and proline were assessed. This study shows that macrophytes utilised in floating beds provide favourable conditions for chilli cultivation under waterlogged conditions. Among the different varieties, Sakata 653 in summer and Jhilik in winter responded better than others. As the performance of chilli in the floating agriculture system was satisfactory in comparison with soil-based cultivation, floating agriculture can be an alternative agronomic method for chilli cultivation in waterlogged areas of Bangladesh.

Keywords: climatic adaptation, floating bed, ionic concentration, macrophytes, phytochemicals, submergence, water-logging tolerance, water status.

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