Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of twenty three promising wheat genotypes and one indigenous cultivar over two years for yield and quality characteristics in order to assess the presence of variability for desired traits and a significant amount of variation for different parameters. Genetic parameters, correlations, and partial regressions were estimated for all the traits. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters. The estimates of genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were high for grain yield per plant, plant height, biological yield and kernel weight and number of kernel per main spike. Broad sense heritability (H ²) estimates for various traits ranged from 50-100%. Grain yield per plant showed highly significant positive genetic and phenotypic correlation with kernel weight, number of kernels per main spike and number of spikelet’s per main spike. The total variability calculated through multiple correlation in the population for yield improvement accounted by fertile tiller number and kernel weight of main spike was 78.6% compared to 82.4% accounted by the all characters. It is concluded that more fertile tiller number and kernel weight of main spike are major yield contributing factors in selecting high yielding wheat cultivars.

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