Assessing the Performance of Farmers’ Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Varieties for Yield and Its Attributing Traits under Organic Cultivation

Abstract

Background: The local cultivars and farmers’ plant varieties have good yield potential under a minimal input system. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out to assess the performance of the farmers’ wheat varieties in Gandhinagar, Gujarat condition under organic cultivation during November-March (winter season) 2015-16 and 2016-17. Study Design and Methodology: The field experiments were constituted in Randomized Complete Block Design having three replications of fifteen treatments comprising twelve farmers’ varieties and three checks. The observations on yield and its attributing traits were recorded. Results: The pooled data analyzed over both years showed that the variety Mohit Gold was found significantly superior in terms of spike length (15.33 cm) and the number of spikelets per spike (22.97) among all the tests and checks during both years. Whereas, the significantly longest awn length was found in the Rajyog variety (14.48 cm). The number of grains per spike was reported superior in RK-7 (68.39) with at par RK-2 (64.18). However, the number of spikes per square meter (499.38) was recorded as significantly superior in HZG 30 which also reported a higher grain yielder per hectare with the next-best leaf length to superior check Bansi and at 94.05 cm plant height found at par to Mohit Gold (96.65 cm) and Rajyog (95.71 cm). Henceforth, HZG 30 can be a suitable option for wheat growers which might produce good biomass as well. Thus, it is concluded with the recommendation to conduct more such trials in different wheat growing areas to generate reliable production data to identify potential cultivars for recent breeding programs.