Estimation of Genetic Variability, Quality and Agronomic Contributing Traits of Durum Wheat ( Triticum turgidum L.) Landraces in Bale Highlands, Ethiopia

Ethiopia is rich in durum wheat diversity and it is produced in diverse agro ecologies of the country. The national average productivity and quality of durum wheat is low due to lack of strong national research program and different biotic and abiotic constraints prevailing in the country, these calls for development of improved durum wheat varieties. Knowledge on extent of genetic variability and identification of important characters is a prerequisite for the development of high yielding and quality durum variety. The present study was carried out to assess the extent of genetic variability and character association among yield and yield related traits in selected Ethiopian durum wheat landraces. Including three checks 49 durum wheat accessions were studied for 20 traits at Sinana and Selka locations using 7 x 7 simple lattice designs in 2018/19. Combined analysis of variance revealed significant differences among accessions for all studied traits, indicating the presence of considerable variability among genotypes. A significant accession by location interaction effect was observed for most characters, indicating differential performance of genotypes over environments. Protein content varied from 10.7% to 16.7% with the overall mean of 13.5%. Phenotypic Coefficients of Variation (PCV) ranged from 2.93 for HLW to 27.08 for PTL while, Genotypic Coefficients of Variation (GCV) ranged from 0 for WGL to 16.43 for VTR. Low to high heritability was observed for the studied traits. Similarly, genetic advance as percent of mean varied from -0.20 to 31.24. High broad sense heritability and high genetic advance were obtained for GY (86.57 and 31.24) and VTR (75.76 and 29.39) respectively which indicate that, these characters could be improved easily through selection. Overall, the present study revealed that there is sufficient variability existed in Ethiopian durum wheat landraces.

Author(s): Mulatu Aberra Ebsa1*, Bulti Tesso2 and Tesfaye Letta Dhugo3

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