Enhancing wheat drought resilience through organic amendments: integrating soil health improvement and antioxidant defense activation

Water stress poses an escalating threat to wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), often inducing oxidative damage in plants and deteriorating soil properties. While organic amendments can mitigate these effects, their comparative efficacy in enhancing drought resilience remains insufficiently explored. A pot experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design under a factorial arrangement (two factors) with three replicates. We evaluated four amendments including farmyard manure, organic waste compost, vermicompost, and biochar under three soil moisture regimes (50%, 75%, and 100% field capacity). Severe water stress (50% FC) significantly reduced soil moisture, root growth, nutrient uptake, and yield. Vermicompost combined with 100% FC emerged as the most effective amendment, enhancing drought resilience through a dual mechanism: it acted as a biostimulant, strengthening the plant’s antioxidant defense system to reduce oxidative stress, and as a soil conditioner, improving soil organic matter, water contents and aggregate stability. This synergistic enhancement in soil-plant interaction led to better root growth, nutrient uptake, and yield stability under water stress. Our findings highlight the potential of vermicompost as a promising amendment for developing more drought-resilient wheat cultivation systems, a premise that warrants further validation under field conditions.