Research on the impact of the varietal composition of winter wheat under conditions of the Southern Steppe of Ukraine

Abstract

Implementation of new winter wheat varieties into production is a way to increase profitability of cultivation. Winter wheat is a main food crop in our country. The productivity and profitability of winter wheat production mainly determines the level of welfare of agricultural commodity producers. Unfortunately, the average productivity of this crop in Ukraine is two and a half times lower than that of the countries of Western Europe. This situation is caused by many factors, one of which is the use of seeds of low generations for sowing and obsolete varieties, that do not meet modern requirements of highly intensive agriculture. Flexibility in the crop varietal structure has positive results. The crop varietal composition is formed for the following year on the basis of registered and promising varieties and hybrids, but only a part of them can be used on each individual farm. One of the main areas of selection of high-yielding varieties of wheat is to reduce the height of the stem. This is due not only to the need to increase the resistance of plants against lodging, but also the tendency to increase grain yields due to straw yields. Quite high yields of new intensive varieties of wheat can be obtained with thickened stems, increasing the number of grains in the ear, as well as increasing the protein content in the grain. The variety of climatic conditions in Ukraine explains the fact that in the western regions with mild winters and more rainfall, high yields are given by late-ripening varieties of Western European ecological type. Goal. The main purpose of the research was to determine the productivity of winter wheat varieties both under irrigation and without irrigation. Methods. Common methods of field and laboratory research were used, namely: – visual and measuring-weight - to monitor the phases of development and determine the biometric indicators of plants, their productivity; – biochemical - to determine quality indicators; – hypotheses, analysis, synthesis, abstraction in formulating the purpose and objectives of research, generalization of the results and substantiation of conclusions; – mathematical and statistical - to assess the reliability of the obtained research results. Conclusions. The article reveals a theoretical generalization and a new solution to the problem of increasing the productivity of winter wheat based on the selection of the best complementary varieties in a particular region.