RELATIVE EFFICIENCY OF SELECTION INDICES FOR GRAIN YIELD IN BREAD WHEAT (Triticum aestivum L.)

Six traits of bread wheat in 15 F2 generation of crosses from 66 diallel mating system with their parents were studied. The relative efficiency over grain yield from selection based on several indices were calculated . The results indicated that there was an increase in efficiency of selection for yield from 12.986 to 122.372% in various indices, which indicated that a selection index based on combination of traits, including number of spikes , spike length, 100 grains weight and number of grains per spike was superior to all selection indices, therefore the selection based on these four traits is recommended.