YIELD COMPARISON OF BREAD AND DURUM WHEATS ACROSS DIFFERENT IRRIGATED ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

Bread and durum wheats are important in Mexico due to their consumption and economic impact. Currently, the country has a deficit of bread wheat and a surplus in durum wheat production. To achieve food self-sufficiency and increase productivity it is necessary to develop higher yield varieties and to identify the best production conditions. In order to determine the most productive and best adapted wheat species to the producing regions in Mexico under different irrigation conditions and planting dates, an experiment was designed with eight durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) and eight bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes, during the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 Gall-Winter cycles in 30 environments of the Northwest, Northern, and El Bajío regions as part of the National Wheat Trial for Irrigated Conditions (ENTRI) of the National Institute for Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research. In a first analysis, only environments with normal planting date were considered, a total of 22, and grouped into: 1) all environments, 2) full irrigation environments, 3) reduced irrigation, 4, 5 and 6) by region and 7, 8, 9 and 10) irrigation level by region in the Northwest and El Bajío. The eight remaining environments were used to evaluate the effect of planting date. Results showed that grain yield varied significantly between regions, obtaining the highest yields in the Northwest, followed by the North and El Bajio. The grain yield of durum wheats was significantly higher than that of bread wheat in half of the groups of environments. The largest differences in yield were observed under full irrigation conditions, where durum wheats were superior. Under reduced irrigation conditions, yields of both species were similar. The effect of planting date, from normal to late, negatively affected both species, but the impact was higher in durum wheats. The newly released varieties have higher yielding potential than those previously released.