Amelioration of the Detrimental Effects of Water Deficit Stress on Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) Through the Utilization of Poultry Litter-Based Compost

It is critical that Bangladesh faces water scarcity during the dry season, affecting lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) yield and some yield components during seedling and flowering stages. Thus, a two-factorial pot experiments (The experiment comprises Factor A: three fertilization levels i.e. F1 = Control [inorganic], F2 = poultry litter-based compost [20 ton/ha], F3 = poultry litter-based compost [30 ton/ha]; Factor B: two irrigation levels such as W1 = 100% field capacity [FC] and W2 = 70% FC) were designed at Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, from November 2018 to April 2019. And it was investigated how the poultry litter-based composts affected the morpho-physiology, yield and yield components of the lentil (BARI Masur-4) variety under different irrigation stress levels. Obtained results revealed that the tallest plant (30.7 cm at 75 DAS) and maximum branch number per plant (14.1 at 65 DAS), leaf chlorophyll a (0.30 mg/g), highest RLWC (70.28%), lowest proline content (1.57 µ moles g-1 FW), maximum number of pods per plant (39.4 at 75 DAS) and total grain yield (3.62 kg/m2) were recorded from compost F3 (poultry litter-based compost 30 tons/ha) with W1 (100% FC). Results also showed that the yield contributing attributes and yield of lentils were drastically reduced by water stress conditions with different rates of fertilization. In drought conditions (W2 = 70% FC), F3 (30 ton/ha poultry litter-based compost) fertilization produced the highest plant height (30.20 cm at 75 DAS), number of branches (11.5 at 65 DAS), stem dry weight (0.35 g), lowest proline (3.88 µ moles g-1 FW), highest pod number per plant (33.1), weight of 100-seed (2.36 g), total grain weight (2.77 kg/m2), harvest index (58.84%) compared to other fertilizations (F1 and F2). In summary, F3 (30 tons), a compost made from poultry litter, provides better soil conditions under drought conditions compared to F1 and F2 in the year of 2018-19 at the 0 and 20 tons/ha, respectively under the field conditions.