Canopy Characters and Light-Use Efficiency of Some Modern Wheat Varieties in Bangladesh
M. A. Awal *
Department of Crop Botany, Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh
M. Ruhul Amin
Department of Crop Botany, Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh
M. Saidur Rhaman
Department of Crop Botany, Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh
Israt Jahan Shelley
Department of Crop Botany, Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh
M. Shahidur Rahman
Department of Crop Botany, Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aim: An experiment was conducted to analyze the canopy characters and light-use efficiency along with yield of five modern wheat varieties viz. BARI wheat-23, BARI wheat-24, BARI wheat-25, BARI wheat-26, and BARI wheat-27.
Study Design: The experiment was laid-out following a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 3 replicates.
Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was conducted at the Crop Botany Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period extended from December 2013 to April 2014.
Methodology: Measurements included phenophase development, plant height, tiller production, leaf area development, light interception, dry matter accumulation, yield components, yield and harvest index.
Results: The wheat varieties exhibit significant difference in phenological development, plant height, tiller production, leaf area index, dry matter accumulation, light interception and use, yield and yield components like spike number/plant, spike length, grain number and weight per spike and thousand grain weight. The BARI wheat-24 and BARI wheat-25 varieties matured earlier than BARI wheat-27 or BARI wheat-26 by about a week while the remaining one matured in between. The BARI wheat-23 and BARI wheat-25 showed better performance and the BARI wheat-27 showed poor performance in all affairs of growth studied while the remaining others ranked intermediate.
Conclusion: Higher light-use efficiency leads to greater accumulation of dry matter and higher grain yield is directly linked to their greater partitioning of biomass into the grains i.e. higher harvest index.
Keywords: Canopy characters, light-use efficiency, PAR, phenophase development, wheat