Drought tolerance screening of wheat varieties by inducing water stress conditions

Abstract

Plants of six wheat varieties (Damani, Hashim-8, Gomal-8, DN-73, Zam-04, and Dera-98) were grown under three waterregimes i.e. 100% Field Capacity (FC), 35% FC and 25% FC. Results of this experiment showed highly significant differenceamong wheat varieties in all the studied traits and water stress conditions decreased them significantly. The superior varietyHashim-8 which indicated higher relative water content (RWC), mean productivity (MP), geometric mean productivity (GMP)and stress tolerance index (STI) whereas stress susceptibility index (SSI) and tolerance (TOL) was observed at its lowest.These traits are recognized as beneficial drought tolerance indicators for selecting a stress tolerant variety. Similarly, totalgrain yield per plant, biological yield per plant and harvest index was also higher in the same wheat variety, which put it asa good candidate for selection criteria in wheat breeding program for drought resistance.

Keywords

• wheat
• water stress
• drought tolerance
• relative water content
• yield