Variability for Salt (NaCl) Tolerance of Six Ethiopian Pea (Pisum sativum var. abyssinicum) Landraces

The biotic approach to overcome salinity stress has recently received global attention. Hence, the identification of existing crop landraces that could enhance salt tolerance is of considerable value for agriculture. We examined six landraces of a pea to find out their relative tolerance levels under varying salt concentrations. Landraces’ seeds were obtained from four districts of Ethiopia at different altitudinal ranges (1379–2457 m a.s.l.). The landraces Wemberet 2017 and Wemberet 2-2017 from Ofla, Sirinka 2017 from Habru, Gedober 2017 from Gubalafto, Mekan 2017 and Tahtay-haya 2017 from Endamehoni were examined for salinity tolerance by growing them in four salt treatment levels (5 dS/m, 7 dS/m, 9 dS/m, and 15 dS/m). Distilled water (0 dS/m) was used as a control. Fifty surface-sterilized seeds per Petri-dish were sown for each salt treatment and the control. Growth features decreased with increasing salinity stress. Landraces Mekan 2017, Wemberet 2017, Sirinka 2017, and Gedober 2017 exhibited higher resistance (5–7 dS/m) to NaCl. Wemberet 2017 and Mekan 2017 landraces showed the best growth performance at 5 dS/m. Tahtay-haya was the most affected by salt stress.