13675 10.30848/PJB2026-6(16) <p> <span background-attachment:="" background-clip:="" background-image:="" background-origin:="" background-position:="" background-repeat:="" background-size:="" color:="" new="" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: " times="">Impact of drought stress and phosphorus fertilization on production and quality of <i>Atriplex nummularia</i> fodder grown in salt-affected soil</span></p> Tasawer Abbas, Ali Majrashi, Muhammad Ather Nadeem, Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq, Rafi Qamar, Fnu Abdullah and Naila Farooq <p style="text-align: justify;"> The sustainable fodder production in salt-affected soils is essential for livestock farming in arid regions. Climate change-mediated drought stress is a major challenge, highlighting the urgent need to explore strategies such as phosphorus (P) fertilization to enhance resilience and productivity. This study investigates the effects of three drought stress levels, well-watered (100% field capacity, FC), moderately drought-stressed (80% FC), and severely drought-stressed (60% FC), and three P fertilizer rates (0, 50, and 100 mg kg<sup>-1</sup> soil) on the productivity, nutritive value, and <em>İn vitro</em> digestibility of <em>Atriplex nummularia</em> fodder cultivated in semi-arid condition. Drought significantly reduced plant height, leaf area, chlorophyll&nbsp;contents and biomass production of <em>A. nummularia, </em>however, P fertilization enhanced drought tolerance. Drought stress also significantly lowered mineral uptake, higher concentrations of Ca (1.2%), P (0.9%), K (3.4%), Mg (0.9%), and Na (2.0%) were observed under well-watered conditions with P fertilization at 100 mg kg⁻&sup1; of soil. Under drought, P fertilization increased crude protein (43%), fiber (30-33%), essential amino acids (44-47%) and non-essential amino acids (30-34%) concentrations, decreasing the adverse impacts of drought. Drought alone reduced fodder palatability by 31% and <em>İn vitro</em> digestibility by 18%. In contrast, P fertilization under drought improved palatability by 66% and digestibility by 32% compared to the non-fertilized drought control. The present findings demonstrate that P fertilization can significantly improve yield, nutritional quality, and digestibility of <em>A. nummularia</em> fodder under drought stress in salt-affected soil, offering a practical management strategy for arid-region livestock systems</p> Published 2026 58 6 1200 1206