DEFICIT IRRIGATION AS SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE WITH VARYING SOWING WINDOWS FOR ENHANCING WATER USE EFFICIENCY, GRAIN QUALITY AND BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINESE WHEAT HYBRID LINES IN COMPARISON TO LOCAL CHECK UNDER SEMI- ARID CLIMATIC CONDITION

Deficit irrigation is considered as the valuable strategy for sustainable crop production in dry areas experiencing less or no rainfall during crop growth. Rather than maximize production, it stabilizes yield through increment in water productivity by limiting water application at drought sensitive stages of the crop. Wheat crop biochemical and quality traits were studied in an experiment planned in Randomized Complete Block Design with split plot arrangement having three replications. Irrigation at different growth stages (GS) i.e. tillering (20-29) boot, (4147), anthesis (61-69), and grain filling (70-89) based on feek's scale and sowings dates (15th November, 30th November and 15th December) were the factors assigned to main plot while wheat hybrid 18A-1 and 18A-2 with local check (Ghaneemat2016) were in sub plot factor. Increment in water use efficiency was observed by decreasing irrigation frequency while other quality attributes i.e. crude fat content, ash content, ainylose content and wet gluten content in grains of wheat hybrid were recorded maximum with frequent irrigation. Among different sowing intervals crop sown on 15th November significantly enhanced yield traits of wheat hybrid i.e. plant height, spike length and number of tillers whereas delayed sowing (15th December) resulted in less number of tillers, spike length and plant height. Hybrid wheat 18A-2 and 18A-1 showed positive response in comparison with local check Ghaneemat2016 when sown on 15th November followed by 30th November under deficit irrigation. Based on the results of this study, it is concluded that crop sown on 15th November produced higher yield and quality attributes of wheat hybrids i.e. (18A-2 and 18A-1) under deficit irrigation.