Study of Wheat Genotypes for Yield and Associated Traits

Abstract

Genetic variety is the main selection criteria to improve crops yield. The study was carried out at Agriculture Research Station Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  Tested nine advanced wheat lines, along with one check, was used for the assessment of their yield and variety of traits in a Randomized Complete Block Design in 2022–2023.  Genotypes for each of the chosen traits had non-significant variances for other metrics but substantial (P≤0.01) differences for grain weight spike^-1, thousand grain weight, grain yield, biological yield, and harvest index. The check variety took minimum days to maturity (121 days each) while CIM-8 took minimum days. For CIM-4, the minimum plant height was 90.66 cm. The highest spike length obtained by the CIM-3 genotype was 14.3 cm. The maximum grains spike^-1 was expressed by CIM-7 (81.33 grains). The maximum grain weight spike^-1 for genotype CIM-5 was 3.66 g, while the maximum weight for thousand grains was 51.3 g for genotype CIM-3. Genotype CIM-7 (12148 kg ha^-1) yielded the highest biological yield, while genotype CIM-5 (6666 kg ha^-1) produced the maximum grain yield. The CIM-5 genotype reported the highest harvest index value (60.16).  The study shows that sufficient variation exists in the breeding material and these genotypes must be studied further for obtaining any best line. Furthermore, these genotypes' genetic material might be used in a future breeding system