Response of Wheat Cultivars to Irrigation Scheduling and Sowing Dates

Wheat [Triticum aestivum (L.) emend.Fiori & Paol)] is grown all over the world for its wider adaptability and high nutritive value than any other food crop. Currently it is grown on an area of about 224.82 million hectares and production of about 732.98 million tonnes with productivity of 3.26 tonnes per hectare (Anonymous, 2015a). Since 1960, world production of wheat and other grain crops has tripled and is expected to grow further through the middle of the 21st century. It is occupying 17 per cent of crop acreage worldwide, feeding about 40 per cent of the world population and good supplement for nutritional requirement of human body as it contains 12.60 per cent protein and 78.10 per cent carbohydrate (Kumar et. al., 2011). Global demand of wheat is increasing due to the unique viscoelastic and adhesive properties of gluten proteins, which facilitate the production of processed foods, whose consumption is increasing as a result of the worldwide industrialization process and the westernization of the diet.