Performance evaluation of different wheat genotypes under rainfed conditions in Rampur, Chitwan

The rainfed conditions, severe in the terai region, significantly cause reduction in the yield; however improved varieties can give better productivity even in harsh conditions. The experiment was conducted in Rod-Row design at National Maize Research Program, Chitwan for screening of 120 wheat genotypes. Data for yield contributing traits were recorded. Correlation, regression, cluster analysis and PCA were performed to understand yield and its contributing parameters. The first five Principal Components (PCs) accounted 55.67% of the total observed variation. The biomass was strongly and positively correlated with grain yield followed by thousand grain weight (TGW), plant height (PH), spike length (SL) grains per spike (GPS). Multiple regression model explained about 92% of the variability in grain yield which included parameters as following: Biomass alone explained 26% of variation in grain yield followed by HI (15%), PH (3%), RL (1%), GPS (0.6%). The superior genotypes with higher yield and yield contributing parameters were TRCH/3/ROLFO7 (576 g/m2), DANPHE#1*2/3 (572 g/m2), SOKOLL/3/PASTOR//(566 g/m2), WBLL1*2/SHAMA//(552 g/m2). Among the measured parameters, biomass and HI were major yield contributing parameters for the genotypes studied which helped to screen out the superior genotypes among the 120 genotypes and can be helpful in further breeding programs.