Asian Journal of Research and Review in Agriculture

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) though an annual crop with indeterminate growth habit is somewhat naturally adapted to dry spells inherited from their wild ancestors. Since vegetative and reproductive growth occurs simultaneously the impact of climate change on cotton growth and development badly affects the yield and fibre quality.  Development of cotton with better adaptation to soil moisture stress is of utmost importance to have sustainable production. Improving drought tolerance during reproductive phase is of high priority in cotton breeding targeting rainfed cotton ecologies.  Considerable efforts have been made to know the drought tolerant mechanisms and figure out the traits related to drought tolerance. Plant growth parameters viz., plant height, number of leaves, number of squares, number of green bolls and number of bursted bolls were observed and cultures DTS 402, DTS 404, DTS 405, DTS 407, DTS 408, DTS 410, DTS 418, DTS 419 and LRA 5166 showed no reduction with respect to these parameters,   DTS 402 was the most tolerant culture showing least reduction in seed cotton yield (-26.76%), followed by DTS 419, DTS 407, DTS 406, DTS 408, DTS 410, DTS 413 and DTS 419 while the check LRA 5166 showed reduction of -12.36% for seed cotton yield.