Assessment of selected elite lines from CIMMYT’s semi-arid and collaborative wheat yield trials in advanced stage of testing under the agro climatic condition of Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Drastic climatic changes among the regions had seriously affected production of many crops worldwide especially wheat and considered as one of the threats to global food production and food security. Keeping in view the demand of ever-increasing population under the changing scenario of climatic changes, development of new high yielding resilient cultivars, with wider adaptation are prerequisites. In the light of such circumstances the study was conducted at Barani Agriculture Research Station Kohat to assess lines in advanced stage which was selected from CIMMYT's Semi-arid and Collaborative wheat yield trials. Analysed data showed presences of genetic variability among studied genotypes. Days to heading, plant height and grain yield varied from 121 to 129 days, 91.5 to 113.5 cm and 2266.7 kg/ha to 6541.7 kg/ha, respectively. Amongst all the lines, EBWL-18 headed earlier (121 days), EBWL-41 produced tallest (113 cm) plants and EBWL-15 gave maximum grain yield (6541.7 kg/ha). Heritability ranges from 46 % (grain yield) to 86 % (plant height). Negative selection differential was noted for days to heading (-20.67) and plant height (-15.88 cm) while positive (202.10 kg/ha) for grain yield which is favorable. Response to selection was 3.3, 8.1 cm and 542.9 kg/ha for days to heading, plant height and grain yield, respectively. Correlation analysiss showed that plant height had positive significant (P<0.5) correlations with grain yield. EBWL-15 performed better then check at Kohat (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan) in terms of phenotype and grain yield, thus it could be used in future wheat breeding program for the semi-arid region.