Abdulwahid Abdullah Saif*(1) Hazem Hezam Alashwal(1) Aref Abdulbaqi Alshamiri(1) and Ammar Wahbi(2)
(1). Agricultural Research and Extension Authority (AREA), Yemen.
(2). Seibersdorf Laboratories, Vienna, Austria.
(*Corresponding author: Dr. Abdulwahid Abdullah Saif. E-mail: amozaid@yahoo.com).
Received: 21/01/2019 Accepted: 24/03/2019
Abstract
A factorial experiment was carried at the Research Farm of the Northern Highlands Regional Research Station during spring seasons 2014 and 2015 to evaluate six local durum wheat genotypes for water use efficiency and the effect of water stress on grain productivity using carbon isotope discrimination technique. Four irrigation treatments were used as main treatments with the following mode of adding water irrigation. T1: 70 mm. 10 days interval (farmers practices as a control), T2: 55 mm. 10 days interval, T3: 55 mm14 days interval and 55 mm. 18 days interval. Split plot design was used for experimentation with three replications. Results showed a variation was detected among genotypes to water stress treatments and this was reflected on growth parameters and grain productivity. The advanced line No.29 * local var. Alass25 (Shara No.154) and advanced line No. 35 were surpassed in most growth indicators and grain productivity than the other genotypes including the Arabi variety which attained the lowest values. The advanced line No.29 * local var. Alass25 (Shara No.154) attained a higher water use efficiency at the irrigation treatment T3 (55 mm every 14 days) with no significant difference in grain productivity of the treatment T1 (70 mm every 10 days) saving irrigation water of about 29.9% with decrease in grain productivity by 13.64%. In general, T2V2, T1V2, T2V3 treatments attained the highest means in grain yield over the two seasons. A positive correlation was found between Δgrain, Δleave, grain yield and some growth indicators of genotypes. There were significant differences between the studied genotypes in terms of content of carbon isotope discrimination Δ13C in grain and leaves. This indicator was reflected in the differences in a variation of water use efficiency and grain yield. With regards of the averages of genotypes, the advanced line models No.29 * local var. Alass25 (Shara No.154) and advanced line No. 35 surpassed the other in grain yield and gave averages of 1543 and 1430 kg/ha, respectively. However, T1 and T2 treatments were significantly increased the other treatments. T1 attained the highest values of 1481, 1373 and 1427 kg/ha in 2014 and 2015 seasons and the average of the two seasons, respectively, according to the water use efficiency and carbon isotope discrimination indicators for the studied genotypes it can be concluded that the advanced line models No.29 * local var. Alass25 (Shara No.154) and advanced line No. 35 were the best under T1 and T2 irrigation treatments.
Key words: Carbon Isotope Discrimination, Wheat genotypes, Water use efficiency.
Full Paper in Arabic: PDF