Growth and Yield Performances of Wheat Genotypes under Restricted Irrigation in Eastern Sub-Himalayan Plains

Background: Water scarcity is one of the major problems faced by farmers for crop production. Productivity and sustainability of a crop like wheat which is highly susceptible to water stress could be affected the most. Identifying and growing such varieties of wheat which could thrive under restricted irrigation could solve the problem. The current study aimed to evaluate the performance of certain new wheat genotypes under restricted irrigation. Methods: A field experiment was conducted in eastern sub-Himalayan plains during Rabi season, 2016-2017 to evaluate the performance of certain wheat genotypes under restricted irrigation. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three different levels of irrigation, viz., no irrigation, one irrigation at CRI stage, two irrigations at CRI and booting stage, randomly allotted in main plots; while six genotypes comprising HI 1612, HD 2888, C 306, K 8027, HD 3171 and K 1317 were randomly allocated in sub plots. Result: It was observed that with increase in number of irrigation, the overall biomass production increased irrespective of genotypes. The highest biomass (7.38 t ha-1) was achieved in plots where two irrigations were given. Higher leaf area with increased plant height and tiller number as well as higher values of major yield components viz., number of spikes m-2 and number of filled grain spike-1 were also achieved in plots receiving two irrigations. The twice irrigated plot also exhibited higher yields (3.02 t ha-1) as compared to once irrigated plot. With increase in number of irrigation the grain yield increased significantly. Among the genotypes, HI 1612 reflected the maximum grain yield (2.76 t ha-1) under restricted irrigation though there was no significant variation in grain yield achieved with the other 5 genotypes except HD 3171.