ABSTRACT
Glycinemax (L.) Merr.is a plant based substitute for beef. It is usually grown in the Northern region of Nigeria, where irrigation farming is common place, and sparsely in regionswith abundance of rain. Thevariety TGX 1440-1E was subjected to induced drought stress in order to see how it fairs under water deficient conditions and these conditionswere mitigated with the use of growth regulators, Salicylic acid (SA) and 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). The experiment lasted for a period of 6 weeks. The experiment consisted of two sets of controls, one set was treated with growth regulators and the other was not exposed to any treatment for drought. Three different concentrations of Salicylic acid and 2,4-D, were used, they were 5ppm, 10ppm and 20ppm respectively. The plants were also subjected to drought stress as they underwent watering in regiments, being exposed to 5%, 10% and 30 % water, respectively. Each treatment had three replicates, the total number of bags used in this experiment was 81 bags. Five seeds were planted in each bag and watered normally for a week to enable even germination, seedlings were then subjected tobeing watered in regiments, about eleven days after first planting and after another week, recording of growth parameters such as height of plant, number of leaves and color of leaves, began. Results recorded, showed that soybean growth is retarded by drought stress but the foliar application of Salicylic acid and 2,4-D growth regulators weekly significantly improved the tolerance of the TGX 1440-1E variety to drought stress and caused an improvement in plant height, number of leaves and color of plants exposed to water at 30% and above. These findings were recorded to have implications for crop improvement and the development of drought-resistant varieties of soybean
