Plants possess abilities to respond to environmental changes by various protective and adaptive reactions. Knowledge of the fundamentals determining the impact tolerance in plants provides not only to identify plant adaptation abilities at various stages of ontogenesis, but also to improvement of their adaptation. Nowadays, the primary goal of breeders is to develop new high yielding and disease resistant winter wheat varieties. Therefore, it is necessary to breed for varieties that produce higher yield and posses higher resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses for their promoution to production and their further application in breeding practice. Our research aimed at studying the facultative and winter wheat observation nursery (FAWWON) introduced from International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) with the purpose of its further application in breeding and enhancement of the local germplasm. The nurseries received in different years were evaluated according to the following traits: heading date, resistance to diseases (yellow and brown rust, powdery mildew), plant height and yield. In the first year of research, germplasm screening in Absheron was carried out based only on the abovementioned traits. About 118lines were selected out oftotal1546 entries, which had been received during the previous years. More in-depth studies were carried out with the purpose of comprehensive evaluation of the selected germplasm for morphological and biochemical characteristics. As a result, most entries were found to complete heading by the end of April and have intermediate stature. Plant height within the investigated nurseries varied from 87,9 to 103,0 cm. Yellow rust, brown rust, and powdery mildew cause significant economic damage impacting wheat grain yield. During the last decade, the most unfavorable years were 1997-2000, when much higher severity of brown and yellow rusts and larger areas of infection were recorded as compared with other years. During these years, on1y 40,2% and 38,1 % ofthe FA WWON entries were found to be resistant to yellow and brown rust, respectively. The results of the studies allowed for identifying the resistant entries. Yield of the selected entries exceeded that of the standard variety, yielding over 700 g/m2 in average. At present, a half of the arable area in Azerbaijan is comprised of dryland and partially irrigated land. During the recent years, grain yield and quality deteriorated in the dryland areas due to the water deficit. Therefore, multi-location trials ofthe selected bread wheat germplasm were carried out at the zonal trial station in various regions of Azerbaijan: Absheron, Terter (irrigated zone ), Gobustan (dryland), Jalilabad ( dryland), Sheki and Zagatala (rainfed with sufficient rainfall), as well as at the wheat growing farms. Following several years of trials lines with high adaptation ability, disease resistance and high yield were identified for different environments. These varieties will be further used in crossing and developing new varieties.

English

0407|AGRIS 0401|AL-Wheat Program

Juan Carlos Mendieta

CIMMYT Publications Collection