Evaluation of grain yield of new wheat cultivars under farmer’s field of Kurdistan province

One of the main production challenges of rainfed wheat is its instability. It seems that the main reasons for this instability are the weakness of genetic diversity and weak operation of agrotechnical methods causing its performance to fluctuate constantly. In order to evaluate genetic diversity and impact of the penetration coefficient of new wheat cultivars in the rainfed areas of Kurdistan province, a study was conducted by developing demonstration farms during the three cropping years 2015-2016 to 2017-2018. For this purpose, the newly released wheat cultivars were transferred to the lands in two cold and moderate cold regions in the form of demonstration farms and were evaluated along with the conventional or local cultivars using common agronomic practices based on instructions of experts. The results showed that during three consecutive years with different climatic conditions in terms of precipitation and temperature, Varan cultivar with grain yield of 1736 kgha-1 and 23% increase in yield, had a significant advantage over Sardari (local check) with grain yield of 1406 kgha-1. Other best cultivars were Baran, Ouhadi, Homa and Azar 2 with grain yield of 1664, 1549, 1496 and 1482 kgha-1, respectively, with grain yield advantages of 18, 10, 6 and 5% compared to Sardari. In moderate cold region, where Azar 2 cultivar is often cultivated, Varan, Rizhav, Ouhadi, Baran and Parav cultivars had mean grain yields of 2820, 2322, 2196, 2196 and 2193 kgha-1, respectively with 42, 17, 11, 11 and 11% increase in grain yield compared to Azar 2 as the local check cultivar with the grain yield of 1983 kgha-1. Therefore, Varan and Baran varieties are recommended for cultivation in cold regions and Varan, Reijaw (in low altitude regions), Ouhadi and Baran are recommended for cultivation moderate the cold regions of Kurdistan province.