Precipitation Water Productivity for Dryland Wheat

This study was conducted to investigate wheat production and precipitation water productivity response to planting dates of Sabalan wheat variety at the Dryland Agricultural Research Institute in Maragheh located at the north-west of Iran. Four planting dates of 23 Sep., 2 Oct., 12 Oct. and 22 Oct.  Treatments were laid out in complete randomized blocks for three years. Results revealed that grain yield affected by planting dates. The planting date of 23 SPt. (with single irrigation at the sowing time) with seasonal precipitation of 504 mm produced the highest yield of 3422 kg ha-1. To describe the relationship between grain yield and received water from precipitation and single irrigation a linear model (r =0.96) was developed with high agreement between measured and predicted values. Also, results showed that received water productivity averaged 0.46 and ranged from 0.32 to 0.68 kg m-3. Planting date of Sep. 2 with single irrigation at the sowing time produced the highest water productivity and grain yield. Therefore date of Sep.2 for planting with supplemental irrigation and date of 2 Oct. can be recommended as the optimum planting date of wheat in in dryland condition of Maragheh and similar climate condition.