Effect of Drought Stress on Fertile Tillers of Wheat Genotypes (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

Wheat is staple food in many countries and a key cereal crop of the world. In Asia and south Asian areas wheat is the second leading cereal crop and it is providing 68% of energy. It provides trace elements, carbohydrates and protein to our body. Drought stress is a major problem and threating crop productivity around the world. It affects wheat crop at all growth stages and reduces its yield potential from 10-90%. So, there is dire need to develop drought tolerant wheat varieties. This study was conducted by using ten high yielding varieties of wheat. These varieties were sown under normal conditions and drought stress under randomized complete block design with three replications. The data was collected for plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, spike length, peduncle length, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike, yield per spike, yield per plant, 1000-grain weight. Analysis of variance was executed and results were analyzed. The results showed that all characters were showing highly significant results for irrigation and genotypes except spike length. Interaction of irrigation and genotypes showed non-significant results for grains per spike, grain yield per spike, yield per plant and 1000-grain weight but show significant for spikelets per spike and highly significant for plant height number of tillers per plant and peduncle length. The graphical representation of genotypes under normal condition and drought stress was done by mean values. Inqlab-91 performed good for grain yield, yield per plant and 1000-grain weight under both levels of irrigation followed by Galaxy-13. Genotypes C-273 and C-250 were tallest under normal irrigation. Thus, results obtained from this research will be useful in selecting best genotypes for rainfed and water stress environment in future breeding programs.