Growth, yield and grain quality responses of Durum Wheat (Triticum turgidum var. durum) cultivars to irrigated and rain-fed production systems at Debre Zeit, central Ethiopia

Abstract

 Wheat production under the irrigation production system is a recent event in Ethiopia. There is limited information on the comparative advantage of the irrigated over rain-fed production systems on yield and grain quality of wheat. Thus, these researches were conducted to evaluate the performance of durum wheat cultivars under irrigation and rain-fed production systems. The treatments consisted of twenty durum wheat cultivars. The experiments were conducted in irrigated and rain-fed conditions for two consecutive years 2020 and 2021. Each experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. After the variance homogeneity test combined analysis over the production years within the production systems was conducted. The effects of production systems on the tested parameters were evaluated by pair-wise T-test analysis. The combined results over 2020 and 2021 years indicated that the tested cultivars significantly affected the growth, grain yield and quality of durum wheat in each of the production systems. In each production system combined over the production years, the cultivars Mangudo, Tesfaye, Utuba, Tate, and Hitosa recorded the highest grain yield while the cultivars Bakalcha, Toltu, Bullalla, Fetan, and Utuba registered the higher grain protein content. The cultivar Utuba combined over 2020 and 2021 years recorded the highest grain yield with greater grain protein content in the rain-fed as well as in the irrigated production systems. According to the results of the pair-wise T-test analysis, the irrigated production system increased the plant height (8.5%), productive tillers per plant (45.6%), spikelet per spike (25.8%), kernel per spike (42.1%), grain yield (40.9%), biomass yield (36%), thousand kernel weight (25%) and hectoliter weight (39%) of durum wheat compared to the rain-fed system. The irrigation production system was superior in most of the parameters of durum wheat compared to the rain-fed. Mangudo, Tesfaye, Utuba, Tate, and Hitosa could be promising cultivars for rain-fed as well as for irrigated systems for enhancing the grain yield of durum wheat in the study area and areas with similar agro-ecological conditions.