Phosphorus Deficiency Stress Tolerance of Six High-Yielding Wheat Genotypes of Pakistan

Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for wheat production and about half of total P fertilizers are consumed by only wheat in Pakistan. Hence, keeping in mind the ever-increasing input cost of P fertilizers, it becomes highly imperative to identify modern wheat genotypes for their P-use-efficiency.  The experiment was consisted two factor completely randomized design  (CRD) with three replications. Factor A comprised of two levels of soil applied P i.e.0 Kg ha-1 (Control) and 90 Kg ha-1, while factor B involved six wheat genotypes (Benazir, Imdad -2005, TD-I, Kiran-95, Tj-83, Sindhu). Results showed that as against its deficient condition, adequate P nutrition (90 kg P ha-1) enhanced shoot length (28%), root length (8.9%), fresh shoot weight (97%), fresh root weight (20%), no of leaves per plant (9.3%), leaf area index (130%), dry weight of shoot (83%), dry weight of root (16.5%) of wheat genotypes. Wheat genotype exhibited wide genotypic variation for their P biomass efficiency. Most interestingly, the Phosphorus efficiency ratio (PER) of the wheat genotypes was greater for TJ-83 and Sindhu. The genotype TJ-83 and Sindhu were the most biomass productive genotypes followed by Benazir and Kiran-95 in the uthal region of the Baluchistan. The study concluded that under P deficiency stress, enhanced efficient wheat genotypes determines their growth and biomass production. The genotype Sindhu was categorized as ‘efficient-responsive’ wheat genotype in terms of biomass production, most desirable both for low and high input sustainable agriculture system, Further validation of these results is required under field conditions at Uthal region Balochistan.