EVALUATION OF GENETIC POTENTIAL AND HERITABILITY ESTIMATES IN WHEAT GENOTYPES

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the three most consumed crops after rice and maize. Boosting wheat yield is necessitated by the rising food demand owing to fast growing global human population. Thus, screening existing wheat germplasm for high yield potential is pivotal to breeding programs aimed at developing high yielding and climate-smart wheat varieties. This study was aimed to screen wheat genotypes for genetic potential and heritability of yield contributing traits in agro-climatic conditions of Dera Ismail Khan. The research work comprised of twenty-five wheat genotypes and two local checks to carry out genetic variability, heritability & correlation studies in yield contributing traits as selection criteria for high yielding wheat genotypes at Gomal University Dera Ismail Khan. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the twenty seven wheat genotypes for all the traits under study at 1% level of significance. High genotypic co-efficient of variiqnce (GCV) and phenotypic co-efficient of variance (PCV) values were recorded for No. of tiller per plant, spike length, spikelet per spike and No. of grains per plant owing to predominance of additive gene action. High broad sense heritability combined with high genetic advance as percent of mean were obtained for number of tillers per plant, number of spikelet per spike and grain yield per plant for G4 and G26 genotypes recommended for improvement in breeding material via breeding procedure, while genotypes such as G2, G4, G18, G21, G23, & G24 possess highly diverse genetic background and are useful for future breeding programs.