Grain yield, adaptation and progress in breeding for early-maturing and heat-tolerant wheat lines in South Asia.
Maintaining wheat productivity under the increasing temperatures in South Asia is a challenge. We focused on developing early maturing wheat lines as an adaptive mechanism in regions suffering from terminal heat stress and those areas that require wheat adapted to shorter cycles under continual high temperature stress. We evaluated the grain yield performance of early-maturing heat-tolerant germplasm developed by CIMMYT, Mexico at diverse locations in South Asia from 2009 to 2014 and estimated the breeding progress for high-yielding and early-maturing heat-tolerant germplasm in South Asia. Each year the trial comprised of 28 new entries, one CIMMYT check (Baj) and a local check variety. Locations were classified by mega environment (ME); ME1 being the temperate irrigated locations with terminal high temperature stress, and ME5 as hot, sub-tropical, irrigated locations. Grain yield (GY), days to heading (DTH) and plant height (PH) were recorded at each location. Effect of temperature on GY was observed in both ME1 and ME5. Across years, mean minimum temperatures in ME1 and mean maximum temperatures in ME5 during grain filling had significant negative association with GY. The ME1 locations were cooler that those in ME5 in the 5 years of evaluations and had a 1-2 t/ha higher GY. A mean reduction of 20 days for DTH and 20 cm in PH was observed in ME5. Negative genetic correlations of -0.43 to -0.79 were observed between GY and DTH in South Asia during 2009-2014. Each year, we identified early-maturing germplasm with higher grain yield than the local checks. A positive trend was observed while estimating the breeding progress across five years for high-yielding early-maturing heat tolerant wheat compared to the local checks in South Asia. The results suggests the potential of the high-yielding early-maturing wheat lines developed at CIMMYT in improving wheat production and maintaining genetic gains in South Asia.
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Int. Apdo. Postal 6-641, 06600 Mexico, DF, Mexico.
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Mondal
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Int. Apdo. Postal 6-641, 06600 Mexico, DF, Mexico.
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Singh
Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Science, University of Arkansas, 115 Plant Sciences Building, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
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Mason
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Int. Apdo. Postal 6-641, 06600 Mexico, DF, Mexico; Campo Experimental Valle de Mexico INIFAP, Apdo. Postal 10, 56230 Chapingo, Edo. de Mexico, Mexico.
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Huerta-Espino
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Int. Apdo. Postal 6-641, 06600 Mexico, DF, Mexico.
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Autrique
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), South Asia Regional Office, Singh Durbar Plaza Road, Kathmandu, Nepal; Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.
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Joshi
DTH, days to heading; DTM, days to maturity; Early maturity; GY, grain yield; Heat tolerance; ME, mega environments; PH, plant height; South Asia; Wheat