| Summary: | Sewage sludge-based fertilization could be the most effective way to mitigate the negative effects of water stress on wheat yield in arid and semi-arid regions. The study examines morpho-physiological and yield performances of the waha variety of durum wheat (an introduced variety in North Africa) at different levels of sewage sludge-based fertilizer combined with drought stress gradient. The experiment was conducted under greenhouse in plastic pots divided into four water stress levels (100%, 80%, 50%, 30% of field capacity). Each level contained five fertilization treatments of the soil (each one replicated four times): (i) control soil (without fertilization), (ii) urea, (iii) 56.67 g DM of sewage sludge (SS)/pot, (iv) 141.67 g DM of SS/pot, (v) 283.33 g DM of SS/pot. Two-way ANOVA and Tukey tests were applied to estimate variations of morphophysiological and grain yield parameters (number of tillers, height, membrane integrity, nitrogen content, soluble sugars, grain weight, number of grain per spike). Drought stress adversely affected plant growth in height and number of tillers and therefore yield components. The application of SS mitigated the effect of water stress by improving all study growth and yield parameters. This improvement mainly resulted from the effect of SS that allowed a good root growth of plants to explore deep the soil and absorb more water, thus avoiding the effects of water deficit. Sewage sludge-based amendment is revealed as a promising solution that increases crop yields under severe environmental conditions. This biosolid alleviates stress effect, allowing the plant to survive and cope with drought conditions. Keywords: Sewage sludge application, Introduced variety, Drought stress mitigation, Wheat plant growth, Yield components
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