Relative efficiency of different methods of generating variability in Triticum durum

Comparison among randomly selected F₃ progenies, F₂ biparental progenies and F₄M₂ progenies was made to understand the impact on generating variability for yield, harvest index and another traits in durum wheat. It was observed that biparental mating in F₂ generation is able to provide greater variability for selection of plants of high yielding efficiency with high harvest index. Correlation studies also exhibited that biparental mating had generated strong character associations with grain yield. Improvement in increasing the number of tillers per plant was found to be difficult. Increase in harvest index and yield per plant in this study might be due to the elevation in mean of other component traits as a result of accumulation of desirable genes through biparental mating. Mutation breeding of fered little chances to generate desirable variability for yield.