STUDY ON MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND YIELD PERFORMANCE OF WHEAT GENOTYPES UNDER WATER LIMITED DROUGHT CONDITION

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at research field and laboratory in the Department of Crop Physiology and Ecology, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur during the period of November 2013 to April 2014. It was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. The treatment factors were A- Main plot treatments two growing conditions viz. i. well watered condition (giving three irrigations) and ii. water limited drought condition (giving one irrigation at 20 DAS for seedling establishment) and BSub plot treatments: six wheat genotypes viz. BAW 1170, BAW 1161, BAW 1163, BAW 1151, BARI Gom 26 and BAW 1135. To attain different phenologcal stages, the maximum number of days were required for BAW 1170, BAW 1161 and BAW 1163 followed by BAW 1151 and BARI Gom 26, whereas the minimum number of days were required for BAW 1135 under well watered and water limited drought condition. Higher leaf chlorophyll content and leaf proline content were also showed higher by drought tolerant wheat genotypes compared to other genotypes at both the well watered and water limited condition. At water limited drought condition wheat genotypes BAW 1170, BAW 1161 and BARI Gom 26 showed higher level of plant vi height, spike length, floret sipkelet-1, grains sipkelet-1, floret sipke-1, grains sipke-1, 1000 seed weight and lower the floret sterility than the genotypes BAW 1151, BAW 1163 and BAW 1135. BAW 1170 gave the highest grain yield (4.2 t ha-1) and BAW 1135 produced the lowest grain yield (2.8 t ha-1) at well watered condition. At water limited drought condition the highest grain yield was produced by BAW 1170 (3.5 t ha-1) and the lowest grain yield was produced by BAW 1135 (2.0 t ha-1). BAW 1170 and BAW 1135 showed the highest harvest index (40.00%). BARI Gom 26 showed the lowest harvest index (34.11%) under well watered condition. Whereas at water limited drought condition the highest harvest index was given by BARI Gom 26 (38.71%) and the lowest harvest index was showed by BAW 1163 (31.58). Finally, from the DSI (Drought susceptible index) based on grain yield it may be concluded that wheat genotypes BAW 1161, BAW 1170 and BARI Gom 26 were regarded as drought tolerant and genotypes BAW 1151, BAW 1163 and BAW 1135 were considered as drought susceptible.