WHEAT BREEDING FOR DROUGHT RESISTANCE BY NOVEL FIELD SELECTION METHODS

Water retention ability and relative water content of excised leaves, post-anthesis stress induced by chemical desiccation and the determination of the canopy temperature were assessed in the nursery to study a wide range of breeding material's Cuticular resistance against water loss and translocation ability of stored stem reserves. A mobile automatic rain shelter (MARS) construct was developed in nursery of CRC in Szeged. The MARS, parallel with ideal water supply gives a good chance for field testing of relatively high number of genotypes for drought tolerance. Correlation between the rankings of entries in the different tests however was low.