Study of genetic diversity for grain yield and other agronomic traits of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum l.) in acid soils of West Bengal

Abstract

Soil acidity is a major yield limiting factor for wheat production in terai agro-climatic region of West Bengal. Recent findings showed that the impact of soil acidity can be significantly reduced by choosing suitable varieties. To assess the performance of wheat genotypes and to estimate genetic variability among them, the present experiment was conducted with sixty-seven potential wheat genotypes which were evaluated for a number of morpho-physiological traits along with yield under acid soil condition of terai region of West Bengal. Significant variation was found among the genotypes for yield/ plant which showed 10- fold range in the mean performance. Plants were grouped into six clusters and the constitution of clusters revealed that clusters VI had the largest number of genotypes (31) followed by clusters I (28) and other clusters II, III, IV and V were all made of only two genotypes each. Among the genotypes, some like PBW 617, PHS 1102, HPW 347 were found promising for grain yield/plant and they can be selected as suitable genotypes for growing such condition.

Keywords

• acid soil
• d2analysis
• heritability
• genetic divergence