Response of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to Irrigation Water Salinity: I. Effect on Agronomic and Yield Attributes

Thirteen salt tolerant wheat genotypes along with local cultivar, WQS 160 were investigated for their response to five levels of irrigation water salinity viz. control (2 dSm-1), 4, 8, 12 and 16 dSm-1 during two winter seasons. The wheat was grown in pots containing sandy loam soil under shade house conditions. The results indicated that the effects of the years, salinity and genotypes were significant to highly significant (p < 0.01 to 0.05) with respect to all the characters studied. Among the interactions, the effect of year x salinity was highly significant (p <0.01) for number of leaves, leaf length, spike exsertion, grain weight, harvest index and dry biomass. Interaction effects of year x genotype were significant to highly significant (p < 0.01 to 0.05) with respect to all the characters except number of leaves while the effect of salinity x genotype was also significant (p < 0.01) for all the characters except plant height and harvest index. Interaction effect of year x salinity x genotype was significant only in case of days to heading initiation (p < 0.01), spike length (p < 0.05) and grain weight/plant (p < 0.01). Adverse effect of salinity was evident in the genotypes for all characters. Salinity tolerance of genotypes was assessed using the concepts of both stress susceptibility index at each higher salinity level in relation to control (lowest salinity level) and mean value over the salinity treatments with respect to each character. Among all the genotypes tested, 8-24 and Sids-6 were found to have a consistently high degree of salinity tolerance. These two genotypes were proposed for utilization in breeding program involving local cultivars.