Evaluation of grain yield, agronomic and physiological characteristics of durum wheat breeding lines and cultivars under no-till conditions

In this study, in order to display the crop capacity and production potential of durum wheat breeding lines and internal and external cultivars to farmers and identifying the best adapted genotypes under no-tillage condition, 26 durum genotypes selected from durum wheat breeding program of Dryland Agricultural Research Institute (DARI) along with two local bread wheat as checks at inovation platform of Iran-ICARDA food security project in warm region of Sarpol-e Zahab, Kermanshah, Iran in farmers' fields under conservaton agriculture (no-tillage) during 2017-18 cropping season. During the experiment the genotypes were evaluated for grain yield and agro-physiological charactristics. The results of ANOVA and mean comparison for the studied traits in inovation platform indicated significant dfferences among genotypes for grain yield and agro-physiological characteristics. Mean yields among genotypes varied from 327 kg/ha (corresponding for G23) to 926 kg/ha (corresponding for G16) and superior genotypes had increasing yileds between 6 to 51% than the local check. In general, according to the yield productivity, agro-physiological charactristics and agronomic scores, six durum wheat genotypes (G24, G21, G7, G18, G16 and G25) were superior to the local check. These well performing genotypes, were charactrized for high grain yield and 1000-kernel weight, early heading, high SPAD-reading and NDVI (normal difference vegetative index) and cooler canopy under rainfed condition.