Paya, The First Sugar Beet Monogerm Variety Tolerant to Drought in Iran

Developing new drought tolerant sugar beet varieties, is one of the most effective ways to decrease the production damage caused by drought stress. In this research 23 superior families selected from 150 half-sib families, crossed with a female parent under drought stress condition. Based on the results four new hybrids were obtained by crossing between, two drought tolerant half-sib families as male parents, with two monogerm female parents. Paya cultivar as one of the hybrids showed the highest average root yield (50.50 t/ha) compared to check variety Gadouk with 36.50 t/ha in preliminary and advanced experiments, during 2010-2014 under drought stress and non-stress conditions. Also, the average seasonal water use of Paya was 15000 and 9500 m3/ha under non-stress and stress conditions respectively, which showed 30-40% saving in water use. The new cultivar indicated superiority root yield 17, 22 and 10 t/ha more than check cultivar Gadouk, under drought stress conditions, in onfarm trials in Karaj, Mashad and Shirvan regions.