Potential of wheat varieties in eucalyptus based agrisilviculture system in semi-arid ecosystem of North India

Abstract

The present study was conducted to evaluate the performance of five wheat varieties (HD-2967, WH-542, DPW-621-50, HD-943 and WH-1105) under different spacing geometry (3×3, 6×1.5 and 17×1×1 m (paired row)) of already established Eucalyptus tereticornis based agroforestry system during 2013-14 and 2014-15. Significantly higher growth of E. tereticornis was recorded in 3×3 m spacing. Reduction in growth as well as yield attributes of wheat varieties was recorded under different spacing. Among different spacings with respect to different wheat varieties, the maximum grain yield (2.30 and 2.10 t ha^-1) was recorded in var. HD-2967 which was closely followed by var. DPW-621-50 (1.70 and 1.50 t ha^-1) and WH-542 (1.50 and 1.40 t ha^-1) in paired row planting (17×1×1 m) of Eucalyptus during study period (2013-14 and 2014-15). On an average, highest per cent decrease in grain yield over control was recorded in var. WH-1105 (90.7 and 91.1%) under 3×3 m spacing and it followed the order: HD-943 (84.6 and 85.3%) > WH-542 (82.9 and 83.2%) > DPW-621-50 (76.7 and 75.6%) > HD-2967 (60.1 and 61.3%) during study period (2013-14 and 2014-15). The grain yield of wheat reduced significantly with the increase in age of E. tereticornis trees.