The drought incidence and severity are one of the majors constrain in wheat production and grain yield in Bangladesh. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate the use of drought tolerance indices for screening spring wheat genotypes with stability for a specific environment. Accordingly, field experiments were conducted with 35 advance wheat genotypes during 2020-2021 at the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute, Rajshahi under two field environments: rain-fed and irrigated conditions. The indices Tol, SSI, SSPI, SDI and STI showed moderate to high heritability with genetic advances indicating possible improvement through selection. The genotypic (rg) and phenotypic (rp) correlations coupled with principal component analysis (PCA) depicted that the indices MP, HM, GMP, STI, YI and DI could be considered as the better predictor of potential yield under both non stress and drought stress environments. Besides, the indices Tol, SSI, SSPI, SDI, YSI and RDI could screen highly susceptible and low susceptible genotypes that can be recommended for optimum environment and stress environment, respectively. Finally, the genotypes G-10, G-16, G-20 and G-33 were selected as a source of drought tolerance and could be used either in the breeding program for varietal improvement or forwarded to advanced multi-location trial in drought prone areas.
A A Khan (Wed,) studied this question.