Participatory Variety Selection of Improved Bread Wheat Varieties for Moisture Stress Areas of Guji Zone , Southern Oromia Mr

Wheat is an important cereal crop which is cultivated worldwide and extensively grown in temperate regions. It is the staple food for 40% of the world‟s population (Peng et al., 2011). Wheat is the second only to rice which provides 21% of the total food calories and 20% of the protein for more than 4.5 billion people in 94 developing countries (Braun et al., 2010). Global wheat grain production must increase 2% annually to meet the requirement of consistently increasing world population (around 9 billion) till 2050 (Rosegrant and Agcaoili, 2010). Wheat is produced under a wide range of climactic conditions and geographical areas and due to its high adaptability with various climactic conditions of environment, its distribution range is more than any other plant species and it is the staple food for most of the world's increasing population (Jalal Kamali, 2008). It is grown from temperate, irrigated to dry and high-rainfall areas and from warm, humid to dry, cold environments. The optimum growing temperature is about 25°C, with minimum and maximum growth temperatures of 3° to 4°C and 30° to 32°C, respectively (Briggle, 1980). Although about three-fourths of the land area where wheat is grown receives an average of between 375 and 875 mm of annual precipitation, it can be grown in most locations where precipitation ranges from 250 to 1750 mm (Leonard and Martin, 1963). Undoubtedly, this wide adaptation has been possible due to the complex nature of the plant‟s genome, which provides great ABSTRACT