Performance of Some Promising Rust Resistant Bread Wheat Genotypes Under Rain-fed Conditions

Abstract

The current study was conducted to evaluate the performance and behavior of eight promising wheat genotypes produced by different breeding programs as comparing with the local wheat cultivars under rain-fed conditions at the experimental field of the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Sulaimani in Bakrajo during two crop seasons 2014 to 2016. The experiments were laid out according to a randomized complete block design with three replications. Seeds were cultivated at a rate of 140 kg/ha in rows within plots. Host reactions of the tested genotypes with the pathogen population of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici were also investigated under natural infection conditions at the same field. Results revealed high significant differences among the genotypes in term of all the studied traits. Charmo significantly surpassed all other genotypes in stem width (4.90mm), number of kernels per spike (58.41) and grain yield (3856.06 kg h-1), the higher value of grain weight (46.59g) was detected in Azmar 2, while the higher amount of spike per square meter (586.6 spike) was produced by the genotype Shaho2. Azmar2 significantly surpassed all other genotypes in spike length (12.7cm) and leaf area (48.51cm2) while the highest plant height (110.1cm) was detected in Maaroof. Based on the disease severity and coefficient of infection of the genotypes to yellow rust disease, Maaroof, Shaho and Azmar explored high disease resistance reaction and coefficient of infection, while SaberBeg, Aras and Adana showed high susceptibility to the disease.