PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFITABILITY OF WHEAT PAK-13 AT DIFFERENT SEEDING DENSITIES UNDER RAINFED CONDITIONS Pakistan J. Agric. Res. Vol. 30 No.1, 2017 Syed Haider Abbas*, Ayesha Tahir**, Muhammad Asim***, Muhammad Sohail* and Riaz-ud-Din* Wheat is the major food crop of Pakistan. Newly developed wheat cultivar Pak-13 was evaluated by an assortment of seeding densities planted at NARC, Islamabad during the rabi season of 2014-15. The experiment was done under Randomized Complete Block Design and was replicated four times having six different seeding densities (SD1: 50, SD2: 75, SD3: 100, SD4: 125, SD5: 150 and SD6: 175 kg/ha) The analysis revealed that the highest chlorophyll contents (49.5), number of tillers/m (240), biological yield (7125 kg/ha), and grain yield (2660 kg/ha) were achieved at seeding density 100 kg/ha and was significantly different among various levels of seeding density. Again, the profitability analysis show the maximum gross margin (Rs. 98920/ha) and BCR (3.44) at 100 kg/ha seeding density level. 2 Profitability, Benefit Cost Ratio; Wheat; Pak-13; Rainfed ecology. ABSTRACT:- Key Words: * ** *** Corresponding author: Planning and Development Division, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad. Wheat Program, CSI, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad. Plant Sciences Division, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad. ashfju1@gmail.com INTRODUCTION Wheat is the major staple food crop of Pakistan. Its contribution to the value added in agriculture and GDP was 10.0 percent and 2.1 per- cent respectively. Area under wheat crop was 9180 thousand hectares with the production of 25.478 million tonnes during 2014-15 (GOP, 2014- 15).Wheat yield in Pakistan is low due to many factors and among those fac- tors poor understanding of seeding densities is also observed. Agricul- ture farming in rainfed areas of Pakistan is becoming difficult due to escalation of prices of fertilizers, fuel costs, seed costs, labor costs, herbi- cides costs, transportation costs and harvesting costs. Farmers in rainfed ecology of Pakistan are either using high seed rates or low seed rates for wheat crop which is ultimately ham- pering the main targets of yields. Optimum seed density is very much important for achieving higher yield and minimizing the cost of pro- duction since most input costs are increasing day by day. Higher seeding densities cause interplant competi- tion for space, moisture, nutrients while low seed density leads to poor weed competition and poor crop stand which ultimately reduce yield of wheat crop (Jenniferet al., 2005). Breeding in wheat crop is highly appreciable as due to continuous efforts of wheat researchers yield has inclined many times since the inception of Pakistan and it stands at 2547 kg/ha as compared to 100 kg/ha. However, every wheat cultivar is not ideally suited for both irrigated and rain fed ecology. Efforts must be 93