Evaluation of Bread Wheat (<i>Triticum</i> <i>aestivum</i> L.) Genotypes for Drought Tolerance Using Canopy Temperature and Chlorophyll Content

Abstract

Bread wheat is important strategic crop used as stable crops worldwide including Ethiopia. Drought is the main limiting factor where bread wheat is commonly grown specially areas receiving low annual rainfall. Evaluation of genotypes for drought tolerance using different mechanism is the most pillars to make the area productive. Therefore, the present study was conducted at Werer Agricultural Research Center during 2019/20 to evaluate different genotypes for drought tolerance using canopy temperature and chlorophyll content as the main selection criteria. The experiment was conducted under normal and stress condition. The stress environment was imposed by withholding irrigation water at flowering stage and the optimum one irrigated at ten days interval up to physiological maturity. The analysis of variance showed the tested genotypes showed significant variation for grain yield under both conditions. The range of variation for grain yield ranged from 2.30-6.0 t ha ^-1 and 1.01-4.36 t ha ^-1 under optimum and stress condition respectively. High and moderate PCV and GCV values were recorded for grain yield under stress condition; whereas low PCV and GCV values were recorded for canopy temperature and chlorophyll content. Grain yield and chlorophyll content showed moderate heritability value whereas canopy temperature showed high heritability value. Correlation analysis revealed that chlorophyll content had positive significant correlation with grain yield; while canopy temperature showed significant negative correlation with grain yield. Generally, there is wide range of variation among the tested genotypes for traits considered which clearly indicate greater opportunity for yield improvement through selection.