Investigating the effect of salinity and nitrogen stress on the yield and yield components of panicum millet

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of combined stresses of irrigation salinity and nitrogen fertilizer on the yield and yield components of millet plant. The field experiment was conducted as a split plot experiment in a randomized complete block design with three replications at the research farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Ilam University during growing season in 2022. Treatments included four levels of irrigation salinity including 0.63, 3, 5, and 8 dS/m (S1, S2, S3 and S4) as main plots and three nitrogen fertilizer levels including; 100, 75 and 50 % of fertilizer requirement (N1, N2 and N3) as subplots. The results showed that the effect of salinity stress was significant on leaf/stem ratio and panicle length at P<5% and for the rest of the yield components at P<1%. Also, the effect of different nitrogen treatments was significant on all components yield of millet, except leaf/stem ratio, panicle length and plant height. The interaction effect of salinity and nitrogen stress was significant on thousand seed weight, biomass weight, yield and harvest index at the at P<1% and had no significant on leaf/stem ratio, panicle length and plant height. The highest millet yield was 3.76 tons per hectare in S1N1 treatment and the lowest yield was 2.53 tons per hectare in S4N1 treatment.