Agronomic Performance of Semi-dwarf and Dwarf Wheat Genotypes

3 Abstract: Six bread wheat advanced genotypes (three semi-dwarfs and three dwarfs) developed through conventional and mutation breeding and two dwarf check varieties were evaluated for their agronomic performance. The experiment was conducted in RCBD with 3 replications. Agronomic parameters studied were grain yield, plant height, 1000-grain weight, spike length, number of spikelets/spike, number of grains/spike, main spike yield, days to heading, grain filling period and days to maturity. Results showed that the semi-dwarf genotypes produced higher grain yield as compared to dwarf genotypes, which confirms the significant impact of semi-dwarfing genes (Rht and Rht ) in wheat yield. Semi-dwarf genotypes NIA-8/7 and BWM-84 had 12 significant increase in grain yield over other genotypes. However, different response for 1000-grain weight was recorded among both semi-dwarf and dwarf genotypes. The dwarf check variety T.D-1 produced the highest 1000-grain weight (48.6 g) followed by semi-dwarf genotype NIA-8/7 and dwarf mutant-72 (48.5 and 45.6 g respectively). Dwarf mutant-72 produced more grains per spike and main spike yield.