Nilofar, A New Winter Open Pollinated Variety of Rapeseed for Cultivation in Cold and Mild Cold Regions

The new oilseed rape cultivar Nilofar (R15), is the result of screening and purifying single plants in segregating generations derived from the cross "Symbol×Orient". During five years of consecutive cultivation, screening of single plants was continued to access pure lines using pedigree method and pure lines were selected in F4 generation. During cropping season 2008-2009, 84 pure lines were evaluated in preliminary yield trial. Results showed that Nilofar variety with a mean yield of 3352 kgha-1 had higher grain yield by 45% compared to the Okapi control variety with a mean grain yield of 1833 kgha-1. In the Value for Cultivation and Use (VCU) trial in six research stations of cold and mid cold regions of Iran including Karaj, Isfahan, Hamedan, Islam abad-e- gharb, Khoy and Arak during two cropping seasons 2009-2011, Nilofar variety with an average grain yield of 3783 kgha-1, ranked first and had 16.1% grain yield more than the Okapi. Under delayed sowing date and stopping irrigation from silique development stage in Karaj during two cropping seasons 2012-2014, Nilofar with 1986 kgha-1 and 0.62 kgm-3 in term of grain yield and water use efficiency, respectively, was superior to Okapi with 1626 kgha-1 grain yield and 0.62 kgm-3 water use efficiency. The glucosinolate content of Nilofar variety was less than 10 μmolg-1 of dry matter and the erucic acid content of the oil was less than 2%. The results of the extension research project in Kermanshah province showed that the mean grain yield of the Nilofer variety at two sites of Sarab Nilofer and Mahidasht was 4004 kgha-1, which was 14.8% higher than the Okapi control cultivar. Due to its high grain yield potential and appropriate agronomic characteristics, line R15 was released under the name of Nilofar and is recommended for cultivation in the cold and mild cold regions of Iran.