Yield and yield traits of durum wheat (Triticum durum desf.) and bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes under drought stress

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted to study the effect of water stress on yield and yield traits of durum wheat and bread wheat genotypes. Water stress caused significant reduction in plant height (PH), peduncle length (PL), spike number/m2(SN), spike length (SL), spike width (SW), spikelets number/spike (SNS), spike mass (SM), grain number/spike (GNS), grain mass/spike (GMS), biological yield (BY), thousand kernel mass (TKM), grain yield (GY) and harvest index (HI). Wheat traits such as SN, SM, BY, TKM, GY were more vulnerable to drought stress. Positive significant correlation of GY with SN, BY and HI under rain-fed condition was found. Genotypes of durum wheat were more sensitive to drought than that bread wheat genotypes. The significant and positive correlation of GY with Stress Tolerance Index (STI), Mean Productivity (MP) and Geometric Mean Productivity (GMP) indicated that these indices were more effective in identifying high yielding, drought tolerance genotypes.