Comparative performance of wheat cultivars under semi-arid climatic conditions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Wheat is the staple food of the people of Pakistan. Concern for sustainable production of wheat crop under the arid climatic conditions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan led to renewed interests in investigations for high yielding tolerant cultivars. In order to address the issue, an experiment was conducted at the research farm of The University of Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan during winter 2013-14 using Randomized Complete Block Design RCBD with three replications to test different wheat cultivars Atta Habib, Pirsabak-2008, Hashim-8 and Fakhri Sarhad for economic yield and its contributing components. Statistical analysis of the data revealed a significant P≤0.05 effect of different varieties on spike weight g , grains spike-1 and 1000 grains weight g . However, the effect of different varieties was non-significant P>0.05 for productive tillers plant-1, spike length cm , spikes ft-2 and grain yield kg ha1 . The data revealed highest spike weight g and 1000 grains weight g for Atta Habib. The results further indicated maximum productive tillers plant-1, spike length cm , spikelets spike-1, spikes ft-2 and grain yield kg ha-1 for Pirsabak2008. Similarly maximum value for grains spike-1 was recorded for Fakhri Sarhad. It was concluded from the study that Pirsabak-2008 performed better than other varieties tested for the said purpose

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