Analyzing Potential of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Strains under Drought Milieue for Seedlings Traits

Wheat is globally known king among small grain cereals due to its high consumption and demand. Wheat has higher nutritive value for daily diet. The demand of this ancient cereal is rising with day to date increase in population. Wheat crop is facing yield constraints that limit production due to climatic change. The climate change involved in fluctuations linked with availability of water supply. This climate challenge tends to increase the drought stress for crop production. The current research was planned to screen the stock of wheat accessions under drought milieu to cope against the climate peril to wheat production. Hundred and two genotypes were evaluated on seedling traits e.g. RL (root length), SL (shoot length), FW (fresh shoot weight), DW (dry shoot weight), R/S % (root to shoot ratio) and RWC (relative water content). The accessions were evaluated under control and drought. The findings showed significant result of accessions performance for seedling traits under drought stress. Under drought stress root length varied from (5.03 cm to 17.50 cm), shoot length varied from (11.20 cm to 25 cm), fresh shoot weight varied from (0.28 g to 0.86 g) , dry shoot weight varied from (0.10 g to 0.30 g), root to shoot % varied from (0.27 % to 0.91 %) and relative water contents varied from (53.66 % to 73 %). Direct selection can be recommended on the base of seedling traits for drought tolerance to figure out valued strains of wheat