Genetic progress for production capacity in winter wheat, estimated based on the results from
multi-year comparative cultures, at ARDS Turda

Rozalia Kadar¹, Ionuț Racz^1,2, Diana Hirişcău¹, Adina Varadi¹, Darius Morar¹, Florin Kadar¹

¹ARDS Turda
² UASVM Cluj Napoca

Keywords: winter wheat, genetic progress, yield, comparative cultures.

 Abstract: Genetic progress in the creation of wheat varieties is continuous, both worldwide and in breeding programs in our country. Foreign germplasm and modern Romanian germplasm no longer differ in terms of potential, but more in terms of adaptation to the specific conditions in which they were created. Genetic progress for yield capacity has not declined in recent years, but has been counteracted since the 1990s by climate change, which is generally unfavourable to cereal production in temperate climates due to heat stress during grain filling and drought during straw elongation. At Agricultural Research and Development Station Turda (ARDS Turda), a number of 16 winter wheat varieties, adapted to the conditions of the central and northern areas of the country, were created and launched in production since 1971. Since precocity can reduce the effects of heat and drought, one of the objectives of wheat breeding at ARDS Turda was the creation of varieties close in precocity to Arieşan or even earlier than it. The Andrada variety, for example, is a variety close to Arieşan in terms of precocity, but it heading 2-3 days later, and the Codru variety is close to it in terms of the heading period. The genetic progress for wheat production capacity was estimated based on the results of multi-year comparative cultures executed in the period 2015-2024, at a value of 42 kg ha^-1 an^-1, without a capping tendency. These values ​​are comparable to those obtained in other countries where active wheat breeding programs are carried out. The behaviour of the varieties created at ARDS Turda regarding the level and stability of production, demonstrates that the progress made in increasing the production capacity was not accompanied by a decrease in stability performances. On the contrary, especially with the recent varieties, the increase in production was associated with the improvement of the stability of the harvests.