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Salinity stress is a major abiotic stress limiting the crop production worldwide. Salt accumulation in root zone and uptake of toxic ions (i.e., Na+ and Cl- ) causes disturbance in water uptake by osmotic stress, oxidative stress, salt injury of roots and specific ion toxicity to the plants reducing the crop growth and production. Silicon (Si) treatment to stressed plants exhibits positive effect on growth, physiology and ionic homeostasis of plants. A study was conducted to check the varietal response of bread wheat genotypes against moderate (75 mM NaCl) and strong (150 mM NaCl) saline conditions in hydroponics and stressed plants were treated with exogenous silicon (2 mM) to evaluate it against saline stress in wheat seedling. Fifty days old wheat seedling showed negative response to saline stress under both levels but when treated with Si, its growth traits, tissue health parameters and ionic homeostasis were improved. Exogenous silicon application improved growth traits shoot and root length, fresh and dry weight upto 75% and tissue health parameter i.e., membrane stability index and relative water contents upto 61% as compared to salinity stress. It improved the ionic homeostasis in wheat seedling by decreasing the Na+ uptake upto 43 and 84% and increasing the K+ concentration by 26 to 39% respectively under moderate to strong saline conditions. Different genotypes showed different response against salinity and exogenous Silicon application. Faisalabad-08 and Anaj-17 performed best in all growth, physiological and ionic parameters and also ranked as top varieties in Principle component analysis on the basis of salt tolerance index. It was concluded that Faisalabad-08 and Anaj-17 has higher salt tolerance among all wheat genotypes tested, and silicon treatment to stressed plants increases the salt tolerance and improves growth traits, tissue health and ionic homeostasis in all wheat genotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research work was carried out in the Grain Research, Training and Storage Management Cell (GRTSMC), Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad to evaluate the qualitative losses caused by maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais) on eight maize genotypes viz: NK-8441, MMRI-Yellow, 30K08, Agati-2002, Swl-2002, Ev-6098, Ev-1098 and Pak-Afghan and its response to plant extracts. The experiment was conducted in a walk-in environmental chamber maintained at 28, 32 and 35°C with 60-65% relative humidity. The experiment was performed using Completely Randomized Design with three replications for each treatment. Qualitative losses included percentage moisture content, crude protein, ash, fat and crude fiber. The data were recorded after 120 days . High moisture content was observed in MMRI-Yellow and lowest moisture content was observed in 30K08 while high percent amount of ash, fiber and fat was observed in MMRI - Yellow and low amount was observed in 30K08. At the end different concentrations of three plant extracts including Terminalia chebula, Chicorium intybus, Glycyrrhiza glabra were used to investigate the percent mortality of the tests insect. Percent mortality data was recorded after 24, 48 and 72 hours of treatment. Maximum mortality of 89.09% was observed by using of Chicorium intybus at 5% concentrations after an exposure period of 72 hours while minimum mortality of 25% was observed by using Glycyrrhiza glabra at 10% concentration after an exposure period of 24 hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]