Study of drought tolerance of durum wheat genotypes under water stress conditions

Given that drought is a natural disaster and poses a major threat to agriculture in most parts of the world, especially Iran, selecting drought resistant, high-yielding genotypes is necessary. Therefore, to evaluate the drought tolerance of durum wheat genotypes, an experiment was carried out on 35 indigenous landraces in Ardabil, Iran in 2009 under normal and drought-stressed conditions. The experimental design in each water treatment was a randomized complete block design with two replications. The results of analysis of variance showed that irrigated conditions significantly affected plant height, grain number per main spike, main spike weight, 1000-grain weight, yield and harvest index. The landraces of Boeuffi and Africanum had the highest grain yield under both optimum and stressed conditions. They also had optimum harvest index, 1000-grain weight, grain number per main spike and plant height. In addition to having high yield under optimum conditions, they exhibited acceptable tolerance to water stress, too. The stress tolerance index (STI) and mean productivity (MP) had the highest positive, significant correlation with each other and were found to be the most effective indices for selecting drought resistant cultivars.