MORPHOLOGICAL AND AGRONOMIC TRAITS CHARACTERIZATION OF SIX CULTIVARS LOCAL DURUM WHEAT (TRITICUM DURUM DESF.) IN OUED RIGH REGION (SOUTHEAST ALGERIA)

The study has been carried out at experimental station of National Institute of Agronomic Research of Algeria (INRAA) of Sidi Mehdi Touggourt zone. The plant material consists of six cultivars of Triticum durum Dest. The experimental plan has Randomized Complete Bloc Desing (RCBD) with four replication and nineteen biometric characters. The objective of this study is the agro-morphological characterization of six durum wheat cultivars (Tritcium durum Desf.) from the Oued Righ region. Nineteen agro-morphological parameters were considered in this study. Moreover, the analysis variance (ANOVA) and the principal component analysis (PCA) highlighted a distinct variation between the studied cultivars, some of which showed good traits such as: precocity yield per plant, thousand grains weight and earing earliness, it’s the case of Fritissi with 40.8g; 52.38g and 102 days respectively. This inter-cultivar variability observed through morphological characterization requires use of biochemical and molecular markers in order to confirm achieved results.