Role of Rice Husk Biochar for Alleviation against Drought in Wheat Plant

Abstract

Climate change is causing the world to experience drought stress, which makes the planet water-stressed and unable to supply the demand for water for agriculture. Wheat, the queen of cereal crops, is the second most widely grown crop in the world, and one-third of all people eat it. It serves as a mainstay diet as well. The globe should have to adjust to new crop-cultivation techniques since the high temperatures cause plants to evapotranspirate at a faster rate. Biochar can improve nitrogen uptake and bring out the chemical characteristics of the soil. In the nursery, a controlled pot experiment was carried out wherein wheat seedlings were sown in pots, and biochar (derived from rice husk) was applied in varying percentages (3% and 6%) to assess the growth and water use efficiency of the plants under varying water stress conditions (75% and 50% field capacity). In addition to speeding up wheat plant development, the addition of biochar greatly lessened the impacts of drought. After 90 days of the experiment, the wheat plant reached a height of 41 cm and a maximum root length of 13 cm. The relative water content was 79.76% of 75% FC and 6% biochar-treated plants. The results of the energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tests further indicated the most hydrophilicity on the surface of rice husk biochar, likely due to the abundance of oxygen- and carbon-containing functional groups in the biochar samples. This study concluded that biochar played a beneficial impact in reducing the drought conditions experienced by wheat plants growing in water-deficient environments, which would aid in the achievement of sustainable irrigation.