Comparative performance of various wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars to different tillage practices under tropical conditions

Various tillage practices can overcome the delay sowing of wheat in the rice-wheat cropping system of Pakistan to sustain the grain yield by increasing the nutrients and water use efficiency. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different tillage practices (zero tillage and conventional) on growth and yield of four wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars viz. Inqalab-91, Chenab-2000, Bhakkar-2002, and Iqbal-2002 under tropical conditions at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan. The treatments comprised of zero tillage and conventional tillage with four wheat cultivars having 23 cm row spacing. Zero-tillage practices and response of different wheat varieties significantly (p<0.05) affected plant height, the total number of tillers m-2 spike length, number of grains per spike, 1000-gain weight, grain yield, straw yield and harvest index. Higher grain yield was recorded in zero tillage due to more number of tillers per unit area than the conventional tillage. The results obtained suggested adoption of zero-tillage practices for Pakistan and Inqalab-91 with the assurance of satisfactory yield production in rice-wheat cropping system in the tropical areas.   Key words: Zero tillage, grain yield, growth, wheat, Pakistan, biological yield, conventional tillage, number of tillers.