Improvement for Productivity Traits in Durum Wheat with Introgression from Triticum Dicoccoides and Triticum Dicoccum

with the objective of enhancing productivity, introgression lines were generated in background of durum wheat cultivars PDW 233 and PDW 274 from crosses with five Triticum dicoccoides and five Triticum dicoccum accessions. During early generations single plant selection was performed for yield and its components followed by a replicated trial (BC₂F₄ stage). Selected high yielding progenies were purified and advanced to BC₂F₅ (two crosses) or BC₂F₇ (eight crosses) and a total of ninety six lines were evaluated for key productivity traits including days to flowering, grain filling period, plant height, tillers per plant, number of grains per spike, grain weight per spike, 1000-grain weight, grain yield per plot and harvest index. Forty-nine progenies showed superiority over recurrent parent for grain yield. Yield improvement could be achieved without loss of local adaptation as reflected by retention of recurrent parent's height and maturity in several hight yielding lines. Some advanced backcross progenies with improved yield attributes have been identified.