Abstract:
Among many, one strategy to ease problems related to bread wheat improvement is introducing genotypes from CIMMYT and other institutions to enhance the existing genetic materials in the country. In the present study forty-nine bread wheat genotypes were evaluated to assess and determine the genetic variability and trait associations among yield and yield related components at Geregera and Jamma trial sites in 2019 cropping season. The experiment was laid out using7x7 simple lattice design. Data were collected on 16 agronomic and grain quality traits The analysis of variance showed the genotypes showed highly significantly (p< 0.01) in all of the 16 traits, number of spikelet per spike and spike length but spikelet per spike was significant (p< 0.05) at Geregera. At Jamma, genotypes differed highly significantly (p< 0.01) for most traits out of 16 except days to maturity, plant height, spike length, spikelet per spike and thousand kernel weight. But days to maturity was differed significantly (p<0.05) at Jamma. Grain filling period, kernels per spike, biological yield, harvest index, grain yield, grain protein content, wet-gluten and zeleny at both locations were found to have high coefficient of variability, intermediate to high heritability and genetic advance as percent of the mean. The analysis of trait associations indicated the presence of positive and significant correlation between grain yield and other traits like biological yield, harvest index, hectoliter weight, kernels per spike and starch at both locations in phenotypic and genotypic associations. Days to heading, days to maturity and grain filling period exhibited negative correlations with grain yield. Biological yield and harvest index both in phenotypically and genotypically, exerted favorable direct effect on grain yield at both locations. Genotypes where grouped into six clusters in both Geregera and Jamma. The first six and four principal components with Eigen-values greater than one, explained about 76.78% and 74.24% of the total variation among genotypes at Geregera and Jamma, respectively. The result obtained from this research revealed the presence of high genetic variability among the tested genotypes indicating an opportunity to get breeding materials for breeding and hybridization programs.
Keywords: Clustering, Correlation, Heritability, Path-coefficient, Principal components