Grain yield changes in historical set of Pannonian winter wheat varieties

Abstract

Improvement of winter wheat grain yield represents one of the major breeding objectives worldwide, due to increase in human population and rapid decrease in the cropping areas. In general, grain yield changes have mainly been related to the changes of grain number per unit area, while changes in grain weight have been less pronounced. However, under less favourable environmental conditions, grain yield is often related to grain weight. Therefore, knowledge of the changes in the main traits associated with improvement of grain yield is important for future impact on wheat breeding programs. The objective of this study was to analyse the changes in grain yield and related traits in the set of winter wheat varieties widely grown in the southern Pannonian region in the past 50 years. For this study, historical set of 20 winter wheat varieties were chosen to analyse the changes in grain yield, 1000 grain weight and grain number per unit area. The trial was conducted during two growing seasons at the Experimental Field of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Serbia (typical Pannonian location).