Effect of drought stress on grain yield and yield attributing characters in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars

Abstract

Drought one of the environmental stresses, is the most significant factor restricting plant production in majority of the agricultural fields of the world. Drought often causes serious problems in wheat production areas. An experiment was conducted to assess yield and yield responses under three different level of field capacity viz. (100% FC, 75% FC, 35% FC) with a set of two tolerant and two susceptible genotypes of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) at Department of Genetics and Plant breeding, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh during Rabi 2019-20. Four wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars were grown in Black polythene bags of 8×5-inch size. The first factor involves drought stress condition at three levels such as 100% (Well-watered), 75% (Moderate stress), 35% (Severe stress). The second factor involves four varieties namely C-306, DBW 110, DBW 136, GW 451. The experiment was setup in Factorial Completely Randomized Design with four replications and the analysis were made. Observation were measured at booting and early grain filling stage. Yield and yield components were evaluated at harvesting stage. The water stress brings out a negative impact on yield and yield attributing characters. Most of the yield parameters were decreased under water stress. T1 (100% FC) recorded significantly highest value of number of grains/spike (25.00), number of effective tillers (5.00), biological yield (17.66 g), number of spikelet’s/spike (20.31) grain yield per plant (10.45 g), test weight (42.59 g) and harvest index (37.51%). The highest yield data were observed under the genotype DBW 110.