Abstract
Changing environmental conditions, fresh water shortages for irrigation and the rapid increase in world population have created the problems of food insecurity and malnutrition. Different strategies, including the development of water stress-tolerant, high-yielding genotypes through breeding are used to fulfil the world food demand. The present study was conducted for the selection of high-yielding, drought-tolerant wheat genotypes, considering different morpho-physio-biochemical, agronomic and yield attributes in relation to the stress tolerance indices (STI). The experiment was carried out in field in a split-plot arrangement. Water deficit stress was maintained based on the number of irrigations. All genotypes showed a differential decreasing trend in different agronomic traits. However, the increasing or decreasing trend in leaf photosynthetic pigments, non-enzymatic and enzymatic antioxidants under limited water supply also found to be genotype-specific. Genotypes MP1, MP3, MP5, MP8 and MP10 performed better regarding the yield performance under water deficit stress, which was associated with their better maintenance of water relations, photosynthetic pigments and antioxidative defense mechanisms. In conclusion, the physio-biochemical mechanisms should also be considered as the part of breeding programs for the selection of stress-tolerant genotypes, along with agronomic traits, in wheat.
Highlights
The shortage of fresh water for irrigation, combined with the ever-increasing population, is a major hindrance to fulfilling world food demand
Significant decreases in all growth parameters, such as flag leaf area (FLA), plant leaf area (PLA), root dry weight (RDW), shoot dry weight (SDW), root fresh weight (RFW), shoot fresh weight (SFW) and plant length (PL), were recorded in all studied wheat genotypes, including parental ones under drought
Regarding SFW, the minimum decreases were recorded in MP8, MP2, MP1, and MP10 followed by MP5, but in relation with SDW, MP1 and MP10 were found superior to other genotypes
Summary
The shortage of fresh water for irrigation, combined with the ever-increasing population, is a major hindrance to fulfilling world food demand. Different agricultural areas of the world are facing the problem of land degradation due to the shortage and scarcity of water [4,5]. A total of 80% of the world’s agriculture depends on rain-fed land, which produces 80% of the food globally [6,7]. In Pakistan, approximately 12.53 million hectares are irrigated with underground water, 6.35 million hectares of agriculture land are cultivated with canal water, and no water is available for the remaining 3.59 million hectares, from a total of 22.45 million hectares [10,11]
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