An efficient technique for screening wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) germplasm for drought tolerance

Effective screening techniques for drought resistance would be beneficial in wheat breeding programme. Higher water requirement and increasing labour costs are the major problems of field and laboratory screening techniques. An attempt to improve the economic and rapid screening was made in the present study. The investigation was mainly restricted to seedling response of 100 wheat varieties/lines. Wheat seedlings were counted to measure the following seedling traits; emergence percentage, emergence index. emergence rate index. energy of emergence, mean emergence time, percent seedling recovery and desiccation tolerance index. These traits when pooled together could discriminate between drought tolerant and susceptible genotypes.