Performances of Wheat under Irrigated Bed Planting System in Semiarid Iran

Bed planting systems are gaining importance in various environments worldwide. In this research which started in 2003, the objective is to adopt the bed planting systems to irrigated conditions of semiarid Iran in order to intensify wheat production. In here, the Bed Planting System (BPS) is contrasted to Flat Planting System (FPS) based on primary and seedbed preparation for seeding wheat. We also applied two different varieties of bread and durum wheat to evaluate their Water Use Efficiency (WUE) and productivity. The research was conducted in two distinct Sites (Sidi El Aydi and Affourar). The results showed higher overall wheat performances (WUE and grain yield) in 2004 and 2005 at Sidi El Aydi site compared to Darab. Wheat performed equally between BPS and FPS in the two sites. However jawher and karim, a durum wheat variety was the most productive and water use efficient under BPS. Due to the significance of interaction wheat variety x planting system, the experiment should be conducted for longer period and a larger set of varieties of wheat need to be studied in order to select those appropriate for the bed planting systems in semiarid Iran.