DROUGHT TOLERANCE STUDIES IN TOMATO

Tomato is one of the widely grown vegetables in the world. Drought is the major inevitable and recurring feature of semi-arid tropics. Crop scientists are still concerned about it as it remains the single most important factor affecting the yield potentials of crop species. Therefore, optimum use of water is of paramount importance. It helps in better utilization of all other production factors and thus leads to increase in yield per unit land and time. There are several physiological and biochemical traits contributing to the drought tolerance nature. With this hypothesis, the present investigation was planned to identify variability in different drought adoptive mechanisms among different tomato genotypes. The outcome is ascorbic acid content, TSS and lycopene content enhance the fruit quality. The drought tolerant genotypes possessed moderately leaf area, high in RWC, pubescence, proline, chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance, photosynthesis and low in transpiration rate and leaf temperature. Hence, these indices may be used both to screen and to develop drought tolerance genotypes for further crop improvement programme in tomato.