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Vertical and horizontal expansion of agriculture to provide food, feed, fibre and fuel to escalating populations has affected the availability of wheat in terms of quantity and quality. Irrigation is the most important factor influencing yield and grain quality. To achieve sustainable and quality wheat production, strategic measures should be adopted. Seven water stress-tolerant wheat varieties/ strains were crossed with drought-susceptible lines using a line × tester design to evaluate the effect of water stress on genetic variability and heritability of wheat grains. As might be expected, plant traits like moisture, ash, fat, protein and gluten content showed different responses under normal irrigated and water-stress environments. In particular, the quality of wheat grains was found to be highly significant, indicating the presence of high variability in plant attributes like moisture percentage, ash content, crude fat, crude protein percentage and gluten content under both normal irrigation and water stress conditions. Water stress played a key role in reducing the moisture and fat content, whereas correspondingly, it increased protein, ash and gluten contents. The paradigm shifts in the deleterious effects of water stress have been elucidated. The broad-sense heritability estimate was significant for each of these characters under both conditions, with water stress in some measurements altering the heritabilities of all quality characters.

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Phytic acid (Myo-inositol 1,2,3,4,5,6 hexa-kisphophate) is a storage form of phosphorus and can accumulate to the levels as high as 35% in the wheat kernel. Phytic acid acts as an inhibitor for macronutrients as well as micronutrients and located in the bran of wheat kernel. Due to its inhibitory role, a high concentration of phytic acid is undesirable as it hinders the bio-availability of some essential nutrients such as Fe, Mg, Ca, Zn and Cu, etc. In order to check the inheritance of phytic acid in wheat kernels, phytic acid concentration was initially determined in kernels of 10 wheat genotypes to identify two contrasting genetic groups for diallel analysis. Based on pre-screening results of 10 wheat genotypes, five wheat genotypes (

Due to similar growth pattern and morphology, monocot weeds offer more severe competition with wheat. A field experiment was conducted to screen herbicides most suitable for the control of monocot weeds in wheat. Seven herbicides viz., Puma super 69EW @ 862.5 g a.i. ha −1 , Bristle 69 EW @ 1250 ml, Topik 15WP @ 37.05 g a.i. ha −1 , Safener15WP @ 247g, Certain 80WD @ 395.2 g and Tremor 24EC @ 247 ml/ha were used. Weedy check where no weed control was practiced was kept as control. All herbicides were sprayed as post-emergence with second irrigation 38 days after crop sowing. The best weed control was accomplished by Safener 15WP 247 g ha −1 as significantly lower weed counts per m 2 (11.0) and higher percent weed control (73.4%) were noted after 21 days of its spray. Wheat growth parameters like plant height, number of tillers per m2, spike length and number of spikelets per spike remained statistically at par among various treatments. Significantly higher number of grains per spike (55.67) and 1000 grain weight (36 g) were noted with Puma Super 69EW @ 1250 ml ha −1 and Certain 80WD 395.2 g ha −1 , respectively. Although treatments did not differ significantly with respect to wheat grain and biological yields, yet the highest grain yield (3708.3 kg ha −1) and biological yield (10208.3 kg ha −1) were produced by Puma Super 69EW @ 1250 ml ha −1. Based on better weed control and wheat yield, Safener 15WP @ 395.2 ml ha −1 and Puma Super 69EW @ 1250 ml ha −1 were proved to be better in areas where wheat fields are predominantly infested by monocot weeds. Puma super, Bristle Tremore, Safener and Certain were found effective against Avena fatua and Polypogon monspelliensis, less effective against Phalaris minor and ineffective against Poaannua grass.