DROUGHT STRESS Improving the Productivity of Bread Wheat by Good Management Practices under Terminal Drought S. Farooq 1 , M. Shahid 1 , M. B. Khan 1 , M. Hussain 1 & M. Farooq 2,3,4 1 Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan 2 Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 3 The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia 4 College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Keywords economic returns; osmopriming; row spacing; terminal drought; wheat yield Correspondence M. Farooq Department of Agronomy University of Agriculture Faisalabad-38040 Pakistan Tel.: +92(41)9201098 Fax: +92(41)9200605 Email: farooqcp@gmail.com Accepted August 1, 2014 doi:10.1111/jac.12093 Abstract Drought-induced damages in crop plants are ranked at top amid all losses insti- gated by diverse abiotic stresses. Terminal drought (drought at reproductive phase) has emerged as a severe threat to the productivity of wheat crop. Different seed enhancement techniques, genotypes and distribution of crop plants in differ- ent spacings have been explored individually to mitigate these losses; however, their interaction has rarely been tested in improving drought resistance in wheat. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential role of different seed enhance- ment techniques and row spacings in mitigating the adversities of terminal drought in two wheat cultivars during two consecutive growing seasons of 2010– 2011 and 2011–2012. Seeds of wheat cultivars Lasani-2008 (medium statured) and Triple Dwarf-1 (dwarf height) soaked in water (hydropriming) or CaCl 2 (os- mopriming) were sown in 20-, 25- and 30-cm spaced rows; just before heading, the soil moisture was maintained at 100 % field capacity (well watered) or 50 % field capacity (terminal drought) till maturity. Terminal drought significantly reduced the yield and related traits compared with well-watered crop; however, osmopriming improved the crop performance under terminal drought. Among different row spacings, wheat sown in 20-cm spaced rows performed better dur- ing both years of study. Wheat cultivar Lasani-2008 performed better than culti- var Triple Dwarf-1 under both well-watered and stress conditions. Maximum net returns and benefit–cost ratio were recorded from osmoprimed seeds of cultivar Lasani-2008 sown in 20-cm spaced rows under well-watered condition. Nonethe- less, osmoprimed seeds of cultivar Lasani-2008 sown in 20-cm spaced rows were better able to produce good yield under terminal drought. Introduction Recent rise in prices and severe changes in climate globally has urged to keep the food security on top agenda to feed the rapidly burgeoning population of the globe. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) represents more than one-fourth of the world’s total cereal output and also the major source of staple food for over one-fifth of human populace around the globe (Manske et al. 2001, FAO 2011). It also provides >20 % of the calories and the protein for the world’s popu- lation (Braun et al. 2010). Drought has emerged as a major worldwide threat to crop production, especially in areas where irrigation is an inevitable aid to agriculture. Plants face drought either due to impaired water supply to roots or higher transpiration rate (Manivannan et al. 2007). Drought influences the growth events, nutrient uptake and metabolism, and the crop productivity (Engelbrecht et al. 2007, Farooq et al. 2009, Li et al. 2009). Climate change modelling foresees reduced rainfall in most of the global cropping zones. Moreover, due to fluctuating climate and water competi- tion with industrial and household users, irrigated agricul- ture undeniably will face drought conditions on large scales in near future (Fereres and Soriano 2007) and thus will threaten the future food supply of ever rising demographic pressure. © 2014 Blackwell Verlag GmbH, 201 (2015) 173–188 173 J Agro Crop Sci (2015) ISSN 0931-2250