EVALUATION AND COMPARISON OF DROUGHT TOLERANCE IN SOME WHEAT VARIETIES BASED ON SELECTION INDICES

Continued population growth together with current climate change will threaten global food security in the near future. Wheat is a staple cereal crop for many countries, including Romania. Therefore, to obtain high yields, it is necessary to choose wheat cultivars with drought tolerance. Research has been done out during two growing seasons: 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 in the experimental field of ARDS Simnic, the purpose of this study being the evaluation of the drought tolerance of ten wheat varieties. The obtained results confirmed the strong positive relationships between the grain yields obtained both in drought (Ys) and non-stress conditions (Ys) and STI, MPI, GMP and YI indices, these selection indices expressing a high power of discrimination between varieties at a moderate level of drought stress (SI =0.53). Based on the rank sum (RS) of all selection indices, three drought tolerant varieties were identified, namely Miranda, Simnic 60 and Glosa. These varieties can be considered as the most suitable for cultivation in the study area and other areas with similar agroclimatic conditions.