Agro-physiological traits for enhancing grain yield in rainfed durum wheat

Understanding the physiological traits enhancing grain yielc is important for wheat breeding under rainfed conditions Nineteen durum wheat genotypes differing in origin were evaluated for their grain yield and agro-physiologica characteristics under rainfed conditions for two consecutive cropping seasons,2017–18 and 2018–19. The main effects due to year, genotype and their interactions were significan' for most of the investigated traits. The genotype by trai' biplots (known as GT biplot) indicated that the relationships among the studied traits were not consistent over the years but they facilitated visual genotype comparison anc selection at each year. The 1000-kernel weight (TKW) an normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) consistently associated with grain yield suggesting the importance o' these traits to be used as selection criteria for enhancing grain yield under rainfed conditions. Based on the clustei heat map, the genotypes classified into five groups with different levels of combined grain yield and physiologica and agronomic attributes. The traits heading date, NDVI Fv/Fm, TKW and SPAD-reading had contributed to grair yield. The study also identified potential lines with high yield and drought tolerance for subsequent varieta development for water limited areas.