Mustafa, Atheer Saber (2026) Growth and Productivity Response of Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to the Interaction between Smart Irrigation and Conservation Agriculture under Heat and Drought Stress in Salah Al-Din Governorate. American Journal of Biology and Natural Sciences, 3 (8). ISSN 2997-7185

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Abstract

An integrated field and laboratory experiment was conducted during the agricultural season at the research fields of the College of Agriculture, University of Tikrit, Salah Al-Din Governorate (latitude 34.60° N, longitude 43.68° E), to evaluate the physiological and agronomic responses of two bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars, namely 'Ibaa 99' and 'Wafiya', under the interactive effects of two irrigation regimes (smart sensor-based irrigation relying on soil moisture sensors, I1, versus conventional calendar-based scheduled irrigation, I2) and two tillage management systems (conservation agriculture / zero-tillage with crop residue retention, T1, versus conventional deep tillage, T2). The experiment was laid out in a split-split plot arrangement based on a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The findings showed an unequivocal and statistically significant advantage of the modern management package on the combination of smart irrigation and conservation agriculture for the cultivars Wafiya (I1T1V2) over all the measured physiological parameters, yield components, and water use efficiency. A particular interaction of this recorded maximum leaf relative water content (RWC) of 88.10% and maximum chlorophyll index (54.15 SPAD units) followed by sharp and significant reduction at endogenous free proline (16.80 µg g⁻¹ fresh weight). In another hand, For the treatment combination of Ibaa 99 cultivar (I2T2V1) with water deficit and conventional tillage, the RWC decreased to 68.40 %, and chlorophyll index decreased to 38.10 SPAD units as well as proline accumulation was increased to 38.90 µg g-1 fresh weight. In addition, the peak performance of the I1T1V2 treatment was observed in the spike density (402.0 spikes m⁻²) and the 1000-grain weight (43.50 g), leading to the best overall grain yield of 6.25 t ha⁻¹, which is an 81.1% relative yield improvement over the 3.45 t ha⁻¹ of the I2T2V1 (tradition culture practice). The integrated strategy (I1T1V2) achieved a WUE of 1.79 kg m⁻³ in comparison to 0.82 kg m⁻³ in the conventional system, which can be attributed to 28–32% −48% 21–28% decreases in applied irrigation water, with concurrent maximal biomass production. This clearly indicates that transitioning to precision irrigation with conservation agriculture is a necessary but sustainable strategy to achieve maximum quantitative and qualitative bread wheat production in semi-arid agroecosystems threatened by climate change.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Bread wheat, Smart irrigation, Conservation agriculture, Heat stress, Drought stress, Water use efficiency, Salah Al-Din
Subjects:	H Social Sciences
Depositing User:	admin eprints
Date Deposited:	13 Sep 2026 09:49
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2026 09:49
URI:	http://eprints.umsida.ac.id/id/eprint/17067

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