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Climate changes and the cost of irrigation water in semi-arid areas seriously reduce the availability of water for irrigation. The optimal allocation of water resources to irrigation and limit water overexploitation are necessary in these regions. A field trial aimed to evaluate irrigation regimes (60, 80, and 100% based on field capacity, abbreviated as FC60, FC80 and FC100) and organic fertilizer (0, 15, and 30 t ha-1 farmyard manure, abbreviated as FYM) on two rapeseed varieties (Hydromel and Nathalie) in the semi-arid region of Qazvin, Iran. The highest lateral growth (branch number) was observed in the Hydromel cultivar with the application of 15 and 30 t ha-1 farmyard manure (FYM30 and FYM15) under FC100 and FC80 conditions. Comparison of lateral growth between the cultivars showed that Nathalie cultivar was less affected by FYM and irrigation. The chlorophyll content decreased under FC60; however, no significant difference was observed between FC80 and FC100. The maturity of Nathalie was earlier than that of Hydromel. However, the use of FYM significantly extended the days to maturity in Hydromel. Although the silique length of the Nathalie cultivar was 13% less than Hydromel, this component significantly decreased in Hydromel under water deficit conditions (FC80 and FC60). The highest number of siliques was recorded in the Hydromel under FYM30+FC100 and FYM30+FC80. The 60% irrigation regime caused a significant reduction in the number of siliques. Although the seed yield of Hydromel was higher than that of Nathalie, the stability of the seed yield in Nathalie was more evident under FC80 and FC60. Overall, the obtained results showed that the Hydromel variety can produce an acceptable yield under FYM30+FC80 and save 20% in water consumption. The results indicated that the 60% irrigation regime was a stressful deficit irrigation and cannot be recommended for this semi-arid region.

Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.) is a perennial forage crop with desirable forage properties adapted to temperate climate conditions. The purpose of this research was to study the phenotypic correlation coefficients between dry forage yield and some morphological traits, and to identify the direct and indirect effects of the associated traits. Thus, 32 ecotypes (landraces) were assessed in the randomized complete block design layout with four replications. Positive and statistically significant correlations were determined between total dry weight (TDW) and all measured traits except for internode length (IL) [r=0.29, P>0.05]. Regarding the variance inflation factor (VIF) as a multicollinearity statistic, number of nodes per main stem (VIF=1407.4) and number of internodes per main stem (VIF=1371.6) were removed from the analysis. Path coefficient analyses indicated that number of leaflets per leaf (NLL) [0.59 direct effect], height of the longest stem (HLS) [0.42 direct effect], and dry weight/fresh weight ratio (DFR) [0.27 direct effect] were influenced by TDW as a first-order trait. Five traits considered secondary or tertiary traits affected TDW-number of stems per area (NPA), number of stems per plant (NSP), number of leaves per stem (LS), length of inflorescence (LI) and stem weight/leaf weight ratio (SLR). The importance of main stem properties such as length or height, number of leaves, and number of leaflets can be used for selection in breeding programs aimed at improving common sainfoin forage yield under semi-arid conditions.

This study sought to investigate the genetic diversity among 100 safflower genotypes concerning seed yield performance and seventeen morphological traits and yield components. Employing an alpha 10 × 10 lattice design, the two trials were performed in 2022 and 2023, with two replicates. Principal component analyses (PCA) explained 65% and 61% of the variability in the first and second years respectively. In the first year, the yield of a single plant was positively correlated with plant height, lateral capitulum total weight and seed number and weight, and main capitulum seed number and weight. In the second year, the results obtained generally corroborated the first year. In both years, the PC1 and PC2 axes divided genotypes into four main groups which contained 14, 11, 15, and 10 entries respectively. Comparison of the traits of the four clusters demonstrated that Cluster-II and Cluster-IV exhibited the highest single plant yields., These clusters can therefore be considered as potential heterotic groups in crossbreeding programs aimed at producing genotypes with superior performance. About 21 genotypes of 100 studied were identified as good candidates for use in safflower breeding programs.

In the current study, we evaluated the impacts of organic and chemical fertilizers as well as the foliar application of growth regulators on quantitative traits and seed oil content of safflower grown in northwestern Iran. The experiment was done as a split-plot (3 × 5), and the main plot was assigned to different fertilizers, including organic fertilizer (FYM: farmyard manure 20 t ha-1 ), full chemical fertilizer (FCF) and no fertilization "control" (NF). The sub-plots were allocated to foliar spray treatments, which included control (no-spray application; S0), choline (S1), chitosan (S2) and salicylic acid (S3). The results showed that the application of fertilizers significantly affected the oil and protein content of the seed. However, the effect of FYM was more prominent than FCF on oil qualitative characteristics. A significant positive correlation was observed between oil content, protein content, and some fatty acid composition such as oleic acid, arachidonic acid, stearic acid, and palmitic acid. The highest values of the previously mentioned traits were obtained using FYMS1, FCFS1 and FYMS3. This trend was also clearly obvious in the content of linoleic acid as the main fatty acid in safflower oil. Among the foliar spraying treatments, the most improving effect was obtained with the use of choline. In conclusion, improving soil conditions through the application of FYM and appropriate amounts of chemical fertilizers is one of the most important agronomic management measures to improve the oil quality of safflower seeds.

Current experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of foliar application of different nutrients (control, nano-chelated Fe, nano-chelated Zn, nano-TiO2, nano-Si) on seed yield and morpho-physiological characteristics of oilseed rape cultivars (Hydromel, Neptune, Nathalie, Danube, Alonso). The highest pod numbers was achieved by foliar application of Zn and nano-SiO2 in cv. Hydromel and Neptune. The heaviest seeds were recorded for plants treated with nano-SiO2. The highest seed yield was recorded for cv. Hydromel and Neptune treated with Fe and nano-TiO2. The highest indole acetic acid was recorded in cv. Hydromel treated with Zn and nano-SiO2. The evaluation of plant pigments revealed that foliar application of nano-SiO2 and TiO2 significantly increased the concentration of carotenoids and Chlorophyll a, b. Overall, the results indicate that cultivating the high yielding hybrids (Hydromel, Neptune, Nathalie) along with the application of iron, SiO2 and TiO2 nano-particles can greatly improve plant performance

Safflower is one of the most important oilseed crops in semi-arid regions. The soil of semi-arid areas often encounters micronutrient deficiencies. However, nutrients imbalance seems to affect the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the oil as well as plant growth. Current experiment was carried out to evaluate the impact of different application practices (soil application and foliar spray) of micronutrients (Fe, Zn, Mn) on oil content, fatty acid profile and yield components of safflower under full and limited irrigations. Results showed that all of investigated traits were significantly affected by fertilizer treatment and irrigation system. The highest seed protein content was recorded for plants grown by soil application of Zn under limited irrigation condition. The highest oil content was achieved by soil application of Zn under full irrigation condition. The water deficit significantly reduced some qualitative characteristics such as oleic acid, palmitic aid, stearic acid, linoleic acid, iodine value and saponification value. The highest head number per plant, seed number per head and seed yield recorded in plants grown by soil application of Fe and Zn under full irrigation condition. Although the use of micronutrients improved qualitative characteristics in comparison with control, the best qualitative characteristics were achieved with the soil application of Zn and Fe. The elimination of micronutrient deficiencies and the balanced supply of nutrients through soil along with optimal and timely irrigation can significantly increase the efficiency of safflower production systems and improve the quality of the oil.

Safflower is originated from Iran and is tolerant against water deficit stress. However, in semi-arid Mediterranean climate terminal drought and heat stress adversely affect the safflower production. In order to investigate the influence of foliar application of proline (Pr) (10 and 20 mM) and glycinebetaine (GB) (2 and 4 mM) under well and deficit irrigation (37.23° N,46.16° E). Foliar spray of compatible organic solutes started from middle vegetative growth and continued till seed filling stage. Comparison of well irrigated and stress conditions revealed that severity of water deficit stress (SI) was 0.25. Evaluation of growth-related morphological characteristics such as plant height, leaf area, canopy spread and percent ground cover showed that they considerably reduced by water deficit stress. However, foliar application of compatible solutes could somewhat increase growth related parameters. Results showed that water deficit stress noticeably reduced the chlorophyll content, while foliar spray could alleviate the water deficit stress effects when compared with intact plant (non-sprayed plants). The beneficial effect of GB was more prominent than Pr, especially under deficit irrigation condition. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the best performance under well irrigated condition was obtained by application of 4 mM GB while under deficit irrigation condition the best performance was recorded for plants treated with 2 and 4 mM GB and 20 mM Pr. Overall, results of current experiments showed that foliar spray with high concentration of GB may can significantly alleviate the adverse effects of water deficit stress.

Mediterranean semi-arid regions in northwestern Iran receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration and are characterised by excessive heat and terminal drought stress. Exogenous application of some nanoparticles and growth regulators appears to alleviate the adverse effects of abiotic stress and improve plant performance. In the present paper, an attempt is made to evaluate the effects of foliar application of salicylic acid (SA), glycine betaine (GB), ascorbic acid (AA), nano-silica (nSiO2) and nano titanium dioxide (nTiO2) suspensions on growth and yield components of sunflower (cv. Azargol) in the semi-arid highland region of Maragheh, Iran. Plants were grown under rain-fed conditions with supplemental irrigation applied three times during the reproductive growth stages of growth. The results revealed that foliar application of SA considerably improved head diameter, chlorophyll content of plant leaves, and days to flowering, while it delayed physiological maturity for a fairly long time. Evaluation of the achene yield component indicated that application of GB significantly increased the weight of achenes when compared with other treatments. The percentage of empty achenes was considerably affected by treatments, the lowest percentage of hollow achenes being recorded for plants sprayed with GB, followed by ones sprayed with AA and nTiO2. The percentage of oil in sunflower achenes was substantially increased by foliar application of nano particles, the highest oil percentage being recorded in plants treated with nTiO2. The results also showed that the highest number of achenes per head, greatest kernel weight, and largest achene size were obtained by spraying with nanoparticle suspensions. Although all treatments improved the achene yield, the effect of nTiO2 was most prominent. The results of the present experiment support the conclusion that foliar application of nanoparticles may alleviate adverse environmental factors and improve the performance of plants in semi-arid regions.

Moldavian balm is an annual herbaceous plant and its lemon-scented leaves contain essential oil. However, weeds adversely affect its growth by release of allelochemicals, and/or direct competition for nutrient, moisture, light and space. Current experiment was conducted to evaluate the different weed control methods including preventive approach (soil pasteurization), mechanical methods (one hand weeding, two hand weeding, and successive hand weeding for weed free condition), and chemical control by synthetic herbicides (haloxyfop-R-methyl and trifluralin). Results revealed that stem diameter, quantity of secondary branches, flower-bearing branches and leaves were significantly affected by weed control treatments; the highest lateral growth was obtained by successive mechanical weed control and two hand weeding method, respectively. This trend was also observed in canopy spread and chlorophyll content. Pre-emergence control by trifluralin considerably accelerated the initiation of flowering in Moldavian balm. However, observation of qualitative traits showed that the highest essential oil content and oil yield was obtained when the plants grew in weed free soil which was pasteurized. Considering the recognized essential oils, the most responsive composition was including Geranial, Geranyl acetate, Neral and Geraniol. The lowest amount of Neral was recorded in postemergence control performed by means of haloxyfop-R-methyl herbicide.

Drought stress is the most important factor restricting crop production in the majority of agricultural fields in the world. Durum wheat is generally grown in arid and semi-arid areas and drought often causes serious problems in its production. Fourteen durum wheat genotypes were evaluated under semi-arid Mediterranean climatic conditions in two non-stressed and water-stressed conditions. Data on fourteen agronomic traits are presented to assess the phenotypic diversity and to investigate the relationships between grain yield and other important yield components in durum wheat. The coefficient of variation (CV) for all the genotypes ranged from 0.71% to 17.62% in non-stressed environment and ranged from 1.38% to 23.70% in water-stressed environment. Clustering based on durum wheat genotypes separated the measured traits into three main groups under non-stressed environment. Peduncle length, agronomic score and plant height were the most related traits with grain yield. Such clustering in water-stressed environment indicated that growth vigor, thousand kernel weight, test weight or hectoliter and agronomic score were the most associated traits with grain yield. Cluster analysis assigned the durum wheat genotypes to at least two major groups in non-stressed conditions and three major groups in water-stressed conditions. Therefore, it seems that for improving grain yield performance in non-stressed conditions, genotypes G1, G3, G4, G6, G8 and G13 and in water-stressed conditions, genotypes G3, G8, G10 and G14 are good candidates. Finally, for improving grain yield performance in both humidity conditions, genotypes G3 and G8 can be used.

In the current study, influences of chitosan solutions on morphological characteristics, growth and yield components of lentil (Lens culinaris Med.) under rainfed conditions have been investigated. A field experiment was conducted in the Northwest of Iran using a split-plot experiment based on a completely randomized design with three replications. The response of twelve genotypes with different origins to chitosan application at the sowing (seed soaking), vegetative and reproductive stage (spraying chitosan onto leaves) was evaluated. Results revealed that chitosan application could significantly improve the number of pods per plant, 100-seed weight, grain yield per plant and harvest index in comparison to control plants. The comparison of yield components between chitosan treatments showed that spraying chitosan during the reproductive stage was more efficient than in other stages. However, the responses of the number of pods per plants and grain yield per plants to chitosan treatments were significantly different among the genotypes. Although the highest grain yield was recorded in the 78S 26013 genotype (from Jordan), its response to chitosan treatments was different from the other genotypes and showed the best performance in plants obtained from seed soaked in chitosan solutions. We suggest that the application of chitosan as an agronomic management strategy be further investigated for an efficient technique to induce resistance in lentil plants against biotic and drought stress in semi-arid regions.

Knowledge about the extent of variability and the association among traits are of a high value for any breeding efforts. The objective of this investigation is to evaluate the agro-morphological traits in a set of durum wheat genotypes under supplemental irrigation and dry land conditions. Results showed that principal component (PC) analysis had grouped the measured traits into four main components that altogether accounted for 77% of the total variation under non-stressed condition and 87% under water-stressed condition. With regard to the first four PCs, peduncle length, agronomic score, grain yield, vigority, test weight, days to physiological maturity and thousand kernel weight have shown to be the most important variables affecting the performance of durum wheat under non-stressed condition. In the first four PCs at the water- stressed condition, agronomic score, grain yield, vigority, days to physiological maturity, test weight and peduncle length have been shown to be the important variables under water-stressed condition. The results of factor analysis relatively confirmed the results of PC analysis. Our findings indicated that a selection strategy should take into consideration of agronomic score and days to physiological maturity under non-stressed condition while plant height and spike length under water-stressed condition. Therefore, the above-mentioned traits could be used as indirect selection criteria for genetic improvement of grain yield in durum wheat, especially in early generations of breeding programmes

Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses in agriculture worldwide, which limits crop production. The chickpea cultivation areas of Iran are fourth in the world after India, Pakistan and Turkey while most areas (95 %) are planted in rainfed condition and are grown in rotation with cereals. This investigation was carried out to investigate the effect of drought stress seed yield characteristic in seven genotypes of chickpea. A field experiment with two humidity regimes (stressed and non-stressed) was performed in a randomized complete block design layout with three replicates. The analysis of variance for both potential yield (YP) and stress yield (YS) indicated significant differences among seven chickpea genotypes. Also, significant differences were observed among chickpea genotypes regarding twelve drought tolerance indices. Based on the YP, the genotypes FLIP 03-64C, FLIP 98-106C, Arman and Azad had the highest yield under non-stressed condition, while the genotypes FLIP 98-106C and Azad displayed the highest yield under stressed condition. Therefore, the genotypes FLIP 98-106C and Azad are good candidates for commercial recommendation to farmers in both rainfed and irrigated conditions. The relationships among drought tolerance indices are graphically displayed in a plot of two first principal components analysis. The first and second components justified 95.46 % of the variations between criteria (59.36 and 36.10 % for PC1 and PC2, respectively). The STI, K1STI, MP, GMP and PI indices exhibited strong correlation with YP, while YI showed strong correlation with YS; therefore, YS can discriminate drought tolerant genotypes with high grain yield under stress conditions.

In order to evaluate several agro-morphological traits in 56 wheat genotypes, an experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications was carried out. Principal component analysis (PCA) and factor analysis were used for understanding the data structure and trait relations. The PCA showed that five components explained 69% of the total variation among traits. The first PCA was assigned 28% and the second PCA was assigned 13% of total variation among traits. The first PCA was more related to grain number, floret number, tiller number, stem diameter, leaf width and spikelet number. Therefore, the selection may be done according to the first component and it was helpful for a good breeding program for development of high yielding cultivars. The correlation coefficient between any two traits is approximated by the cosine of the angle between their vectors in the plot of the first two PCAs and the most prominent relations were between grain diameter and grain yield; and between grain length and 1,000 seed weight. The factor analysis divided the eighteen traits into five factors and the first factor included stem diameter, leaf width, tiller number, spike length, floret number, spikelet number, grain number and grain yield. The second factor was composed of some morphological traits and indicated the importance of the grain diameter, grain length, 1,000 seed weight and grain yield. The two PCA and factor analysis methods were found to give complementary information, and therefore such knowledge would assist the plant breeders in making their selection. In other words, this data reduction would let the plant breeder reduce field costs required to obtain the genetic parameter estimates necessary to construct selection indices.

The aim of investigation was to evaluate the pattern of genetic variation in Kabuli chickpea genotypes through various traits under semi-arid rainfed circumstances. Trial was performed to evaluate the response of 50 Kabuli chickpea genotypes via a randomized complete block layout with three replicates. The entry by tester (genotype by trait) biplot which explained 66% of the variability indicated that the important traits for a favorable genotype in semiarid environments were seeds' number of pod and pods' number of single plant. The biplot model introduced some desirable chickpea genotypes as good for a trait or a category of traits; genotype 27 for chlorophyl content, genotype 26 for seed yield (SY), SP and PP, and genotype 36 for plant height (PH), days to maturity (DM), pod's weight (PW), hundred seed weight (HSW), plant dry weight (PDW), and plant fresh weight (PFW). Based on an ideal assumptive genotype (entry) position, genotype 1 followed to 2, 10, 16, 17, 23, 26, 33 and 34 were ideal regarding the distinction ability and typical potential. According to an ideal assumptive trait (tester) position, PH, PDW, and PFW were more discriminative and typical traits. The responses of chickpea genotypes regarding SY indicated that genotype 26 following to 3, 17 and 27, were the most desirable and can be advised for commercial cultivar release process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A two-year study of garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) was conducted, evaluating 81 foreign (from the Genebank Department of Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK; Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung) in Gatersleben, Germany) and Iranian (local cultivars) genotypes for seed yield and 18 traits. The first two principal components of the genotype × trait interaction biplot accounted for 70% and 61% of the total genotype × trait interaction for the years 2012 and 2013, respectively. The vertex genotypes for the first year were G23, G59, G61, G51, G6, and G12 and for the second year were G32, G78, G53, and G20. Traits, such as seed yield and biological yield, were favorable in sectors of G32 and G12 and these vertex genotypes fell in the same sectors in both years. A positive association was observed between plant height and biological yield, as well as between the main stem axis and seed yield in both years as indicated by the acute angles. Based on seed yield, Genotype G6 was the best followed by Genotypes G29, G32, G48, and G50 in the first year and Genotype G32 followed by Genotypes G29 and G42 were the best genotypes in the second year. Given the importance of main axis length, biological yield, plant height, and flowering period regarding seed yield in this and previous investigations, these traits should be selected in garden cress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulphur fertilizer can be used as a soil amendment in semi-arid region. The current field trial aimed to study the effect of different levels of various sulphur fertilizers (control: no sulphur application, utilization of 25 or 50 kg S from single superphosphate: P+S25 or P+S50, 25 or 50 kg S from the elemental form: S25 or S50, 25 or 50 kg S from zinc sulfate: Zn+S25 or Zn+S50) on growth and qualitative proprieties of safflower in west of Iran. The application of sulphur increased vegetative growth components such as plant height, first capitulum height, stem diameter, and the number of lateral branches. The highest rate of vegetative growth was obtained with the application of zinc sulfate. Chlorophyll content increased by 21-24% with zinc sulfate compared to the control. The widest canopy was recorded under the conditions of the use of Zn+S50 and P+S50 (a 53% increase). Regardless of the amount of consumption, the highest plant dry weight was obtained with the use of Zn+S and S. Utilization of the high level of zinc sulfate and elemental sulphur by increasing the number of capitula, number of achenes in capitulum and diameter of capitulum improved achene yield (by 17%). The highest amount of achene oil was achieved by S50 and the application of P+S50 was in the second rank. However, consumption of all levels of S or Zn+S and P+S50 caused a significant increase in achene protein content. The highest amount of oleic acid, stearic acid, and palmitic acid was obtained with the use of Zn+S. Altogether, under farmyard applied conditions, elemental sulphure and zinc sulphate significantly improved safflower performance due to its high S content, slow S releasing property and low leaching. Application of elemental sulphure and zinc sulphate in semi-arid areas should be seriously considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low soil organic matter is a prevalent problem in soils with semi-desert climates, which seems to have effects on the efficiency of the utilized chemical fertilizers. The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the interaction between farmyard manure (FYM0=0, FYM10=10, and FYM20=20 t ha-1) and nitrogen fertilizer (N0=0, N40= 40 and N80=80 kg ha-1) on growth ad seed production of safflower in the west of Iran. Results showed that the application of nitrogen at all levels of animal manure increased the height of the plant. The effect of using small amounts of nitrogen (40) was more evident in the conditions of application of animal manure. The application of FYM10+N80 increased the number of lateral branches by about 56%. With the increase in nitrogen consumption, the chlorophyll content in the leaves increased linearly. The increasing effect of applying FYM20 on chlorophyll content was similar to the application of 40 kg of nitrogen and improved the chlorophyll content by about 26%. Canopy width increased by 80% with the utilization of FYM20+N80 compared to the control condition (FYM0+N0). Application of FYM10 and FYM20 increased capitulum diameter by canopy by 40% and 54%, respectively. Altogether, the best safflower performance was achieved under the conditions of using FYM20+N80, which improved the yield by 439 kg ha-1 over control. The use of FYM increased the positive effect of nitrogen on leaf chlorophyll, canopy width, and capitulum number and ultimately improved seed yield. Improving soil organic matter is one of the necessities to increase the efficiency of nitrogenous fertilizers in semi-arid areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compatible solutes control cell osmotic balance and compatible the cells' metabolism whereas nano-particles have been introduced to increase crop production with inadequate knowledge. This investigation is done to evaluate the effects of application of salicylic acid, glycine betaine and nano titanium dioxide on sunflower. Measured traits were plant height (PH), leaf length (LL), chlorophyll content (CHL), number of seeds per head (NSH), 1000-seed weight (TSW), day to maturity (DM), husk percentage (HP), kernel weight (KW), percentage of empty achenes (PEA), head number per plant (HNP), grain yield (GY) and oil percent (OIL). Results indicated that the first two principal components accounted 92% of total variation of the treatment by trait (T × T) interaction and were used to generate a T × T biplot. All treatments were identified as the vertex treatments in polygon of TT biplot and the nano titanium dioxide treatment had high values for all traits expect PEA, HP and TSW. The nano titanium dioxide was identified as ideal treatment and GY and HNP were identified as ideal traits. The positive correlations between HNP and GY, and between OIL and KW; and near zero correlations between TSW and HP, and between TSW with DM as showed. Application of compatible organic solutes (glycine betaine and salicylic acid) had not any considerable improvement on traits while application of nano-titanium dioxide indicated considerably enhanced the yield and most traits of sunflower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present investigation, 81 safflower genotypes were studied in a 9×9 simple lattice design for several plants per plot (NPP), plant height (PH), the height of the first lateral branch (HFL), the height of the first lateral capitulum (HFC), stem diameter (SD), number of lateral branches per plant (NLB), number of main branches per plant (NMB), number of capitula per plant (NCP), number of seeds per main capitulum (SMC), number of seeds per lateral capitulum (SLC), seed yield (SY) and thousand seed weight (TSW). The genotype by trait (G×T) interaction biplot tool was used to indicate the pattern of G×T interaction two-way interaction data in a graph with 73% description of observed variation whereas the first principal component (PC) effect explained 49%, and the second PC, 24%, of the observed interaction variability. The vector view displayed that NCP with NMB, and SMC with SY were positively associated while there was a negative association between HFC with TSW, and between NLB with NPP. The polygon-view graph is divided into eleven sectors, and the sector of genotype G80 was a winner for most traits. Genotype G58 followed by genotypes G30, G33 and G72, were the most favorable genotypes in regard to SY while regarding this trait as a reference, SMC was identified as the most related trait which is followed by SLC, SD. Applying G×T biplot to the safflower multiple trait data demonstrated that this model visually showed the associations among seed yield with the number of seeds per main and lateral capitula followed by the number of capitula per plant and thousand seed weight, and provide ease of visual genotype comparisons and choosing. We found that choose of seed yield alone was not only dependent on the number of seeds per main and lateral capitula but also related to the other traits in safflower breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of multienvironment trials (METs) of crops for cultivar evaluation and recommendation is an important issue in plant breeding research. Evaluating both stability of performance and high yield is essential in MET analyses. The objective of this investigation was to compare 10 nonparametric stability methods and apply nonparametric tests (which do not require distributional assumptions) for genotype-by-environment (G x E) interaction to 11 lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) genotypes. Nine improved lentil genotypes and two local cultivars were grown in 20 semiarid environments in Iran from 2002 to 2004. Results of nonparametric tests of G x E interaction and a combined ANOVA across environments showed there were both crossover and noncrossover G x E interactions and genotypes varied significantly for yield. In this study, high values of TOP (proportion of environments in which a genotype ranked in the top third) and low values of rank-sum (sum of ranks of mean yield and Shukla's stability variance) were associated with high mean yield, but the other nonparametric methods were not positively correlated with mean yield and instead characterized a static concept of stability. The results of principal component (PC) analysis and correlation analysis of nonparametric stability statistics and yield indicated that only rank-sum and TOP methods would be useful for simultaneously selecting for high yield and stability. These methods recommended FLIP 92-12L as stable and FLIP96-6L as unstable genotypes. A biplot of the first two PCs also revealed that the nonparametric methods grouped as three distinct classes that corresponded to different agronomic and biological concepts of stability., LENTIL is an annual legume best adapted to cool climate conditions and is traditionally grown as a rainfed crop in the Middle East. Legumes and especially lentil are the most [...]