Influence of drought conditions on yield attributing characters and yield of wheat genotypes

Abstract

Drought stress remains a major environmental factor which decreases the yield and productivity of most cereals growing worldwide. The research was carried out to assess correlation and path coefficient among 20 bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes. The treatments under drought conditions affected all agronomic traits, and the genotypes showed a significant difference. However, the results from the ambient tunnel were satisfactory, and some interesting observations were made. The present experiment was undertaken to estimate the correlation coefficient between grain yield and different yield contributing characters. The experiment was laid-out with two replications using an alpha lattice design. The study aimed to determine the degree of association between yield and yield attributing characters of drought-tolerant wheat populations using correlation and path analyses. The experiment's results demonstrated a highly significant difference in all the attributes examined between the wheat varieties, and water restriction dramatically reduced those traits. Partitioning of correlation coefficients into direct and indirect effects revealed. strong positive direct effects of spike weight on grain yield under drought-stressed conditions. Spike weight expressed the highest positive correlation (0.696) with grain yield, whereas spikelet per spike showed the lowest positive correlation (0.2) with tiller/m2.