Abstract
Salinity is one of the most severe environmental factors limiting the productivity of agricultural crops. The present study assesses salt-tolerant cultivars of Vicia faba L.on the basis of their growth, biomass and foliar characteristics. Four levels of salt stress (0, 50, 100 and 150mM) were applied to three selected cultivars. Degaga, Dosha and Hachalu. Results revealed significant differences among the cultivars, salt-stress treatments, and their interaction, indicating the cultivars' variability and differential response to salt stress. Salinity stress adversely affected plant growth, plant water status and biomass production. Salt treatments decreased the chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b contents, but cultivar Dosha, which was ahead of others in height, leaf number, relative water content, total biomass and leaf-dry-mass ratio, was least affected. Functional leaf characters, such as photochemical efficiency of PSII (maximum quantum yield = Fv/Fm), stomatal conductance (gs), net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and transpiration rate (E) were also reduced under salt-stress, and againDosha cultivar did better than others except in gs. The relatively less decline in growth, water status, biomass, photosynthetic pigments and functional leaf characters of Dosha exhibits a reasonable tolerance ability of this cultivar, while the other two varieties viz., Degaga and Hachalu proved to be sensitive to salt stress.