Grain Quality of Irrigated Bread Wheat Produced by Farmers in the Southern Warm and Dry Agro-climatic Zone of Iran in 2018-2021 Cropping Seasons

The quality of bread wheat grain not only affects the efficiency and production of flour, but it also contributes to the production of a product with more favorable technological and sensory characteristics and longer shelf life which by reducing waste and increasing productivity ensures the improvement of production chain efficiency from farm to table. Therefore, the current research was carried out to evaluate grain quality of irrigated bread wheat produced by farmers in the southern warm and dry agro-climatic zone provinces in 2018-2021. For this purpose, 642 irrigated bread wheat grain samples were collected from 10 provinces in the southern warm and dry agro-climatic zone of Iran, and the physical properties of the grain and the physico-chemical characteristics of flour for each cultivar in each province were evaluated. The results showed that Fars province with 43.1±2.4 g and Kohgiluyeh & Boyer-Ahmad province with 36.1±3.5 g had the highest and lowest 1000 grain weight, respectively. Cv. Chamran 2 had the highest (45.5±2.1 g) 1000 grain weight in Fars and the lowest (35.5±3.8 g) in Kohgiluyeh & Boyer-Ahmad. Also, the wheat grain samples produced in this agro-climatic zone were identified as “very heavy grain” considering average hectoliter weight (80.2±0.8 kg/hL). On the other hand, the highest protein content was observed in Khuzestan (12.4%) and Bushehr (12.1±0.3%) provinces, respectively. Fars province had the highest (27.0±1.4%) wet gluten content. By evaluating the grain hardness, it was revealed that cv. Mehregan had the highest (52.8±4.4) grain hardness index in Bushehr province and the lowest (49.0±1.4) in Lorestan. The highest and lowest grain hardness index, gluten index, zeleny sedimentation volume and SDS sedimentation height were observed in grain samples from Khuzestan and Kohgiluyeh & Boyer-Ahmad provinces, respectively. Finally, considering the observed variation in quality properties of grain samples of irrigated bread wheat cultivars in Iran which is affected by the differences in agro-climatic and field management practices, it is suggested that wheat grains produced, with high quality, in the southern warm and dry agro-climatic zone be used to improve the quality of end-use products of grains with lower quality produced in some other provinces in Iran.