Study on the effect of drought and waterlogging conditions on yield and growth of three local varieties of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.)

Climate change causes substantial abiotic pressures like drought and waterlogging to reduce eggplant production every year in Bangladesh. Hence, this study aims to investigate the influence of the abiotic stresses on the yield and growth of three local varieties of eggplants including BARI Begun-5, BARI Begun-7 and Purple king in Bangladesh. Also the study aims to find out the proper eggplant variety for the southern and norther parts of Bangladesh. The experiments were carried out using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications followed by statistical analysis using Statistix 10 software. In comparison to drought and waterlogging conditions, purple king was observed to exhibit larger plant height of 36.5 cm, SPAD value of 57.4, and fruit yield of 1.5 kg/pot when applying a control condition. The results showed that both the waterlogging and drought conditions influenced significantly and reduced the growth and yield of the eggplants. Between them, the waterlogged conditions affected the outputs more. It is worth noting that the BARI Begun-5 was affected by the treatments more than the BARI Begun-7 and Purple king. This study suggests that the purple king variety should be the suitable variety for the southern and norther parts of Bangladesh.