GENOTYPIC COMPETITION AMONG ELITE WHEAT BREEDING LINES UNDER IRRIGATED AND RAINFED CONDITIONS

Development of high yielding cultivars is one of the prime objectives of all wheat breeding programs. An experiment was conducted during 2008-09 at Agriculture Research Farm, Khyber Pakhtunkawa Agricultural University, Peshawar, Pakistan in which fifteen wheat lines were evaluated for yield and yield contributing traits under irrigated and rainfed field conditions. Lines exhibited significant differences for days to heading, days to maturity, plant height, number of grains spike^-1, grain weight spike^-1, 100-grain weight, biological yield and grain yield except for harvest index. The interactions between genotype and environment for plant height was significant (P 0.01) while non significant (P 0.05) for rest other traits. Mean data ranged from 109 to 121 for days to heading, 122 to166 for days to maturity, 93.95 to108.14 cm for plant height, 64 to 46 for grains spike^-1, 1.92 to 2.90 g for grain weight spike-1, 3.93 to 5.31g for 100-grain weight, 13311 to 10489 kg ha^-1 for biological yield, 4044 to 2933 kg ha^-1 for grain yield and 25.90 to 33.16 % for harvest index. Correlation analysis revealed that days to maturity with days to heading, 100-grain weight, biological yield and grain yield, plant height with grains spike-1 and grain weight spike^-1, grains spike-1 with plant height, grain weight spike^-1, biological yield, grain yield and harvest index, 100-grain weight with grain weight spike^-1 and grain yield, biological yield with days to heading, days to maturity, grains spike^-1, grain weight spike-1 and grain yield, grain yield with days to maturity, grains spike^-1, grain weight spike^-1, biological yield, harvest index and 100- grain weight were significantly positive. Based on the results of this study, most of the genotypes performed well for grain yield in both conditions but this needs to be confirmed over years and locations for conclusive recommendations.