Aftab, A New Spring Bread Wheat Cultivar with Optimum Yield Adaptability in Warm Dryland Climate Conditions of Iran

Aftab cultivar originated from national cereal breeding programs .The new cultivar was evaluated in International high rainfall wheat yield trial nursery at Gachsaran and Gonbad Agricultural Research Stations (2008-2009). Due to optimum grain yield and other agronomic traits, the new cultivar was tested in advanced yield trials in Gachsaran, Ilam, Khoram Abad and Gonbad research stations (2009-2010). Aftab cultivar with high grain yield, high kernel weight and earliness compare to Koohdasht cultivar as check was classified as desirable genotype .Aftab cultivar showed high grain yield (3183kg.ha-1) in advanced experiment trials during five years, it was 13.3% more than check cultivars (Koohdasht and Karim) with 2810 kg.ha-1.The new cultivar showed the best rank, compering to all cultivar and advanced lines, such as Koohdasht which cultivated in large scale by farmers in warm dryland regions, based on stability parameters: low standard deviation and small within location coefficient of variation. Aftab cultivar showed remarkable resistance against important current wheat diseases such as yellow rust, brown rust, and fusarim head blight in warm dryland stations under natural infection and artificial inoculation conditions, in addition it has optimum bread flour quality. On-farm experimental results, the new cultivar showed high grain yield.