2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Theoretical model development and demonstration of cultivation technology by defoliation to improve water use efficiency in dryland agriculture

Research Project

Project/Area Number	19780013
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Crop science/Weed science
Research Institution	Tottori University
Principal Investigator	TSUJI Wataru Tottori University, 乾燥地研究センター, 助教 (60423258)
Project Period (FY)	2007 – 2009
Keywords	乾燥地農業 / 水資源 / 乾燥ストレス / 食用作物 / 切葉 / 子実収量 / 水利用効率 / 国際貢献
Research Abstract	To tackle water and food deficit in drylands, I devised agricultural practice to enhance water use efficiency with conserving water resources and increasing grain yield of crops by defoliation. Pot and field experiments were conducted in Japan and overseas to demonstrate the effects of defoliation and elucidate its theory. I found that defoliation in booting stage under drought stress can increase grain yield of sorghum. This increment may attribute to mitigation of sterility, maintenance of photosynthetic rate through high stomatal conductance, and allocation increase of assimilates to spike.