Drought stress constricts crop production around the world. Employing high-yielding cultivars with drought tolerance might be the ideal professional approach to coping with its detrimental outcomes. As a result, the current study was performed to investigate the sensitivity and tolerance of nine wheat genotypes to drought stress. In a randomized block design experiment, nine wheat genotypes were subjected to four water treatments: 100%, 85%, 70%, and 55% of the available water (AW). Four water regimes in two growing seasons were counted as eight environmental zones. The leaf’s water relations and photosynthetic pigment were estimated, as well as growth and yield parameters. Univariate and multivariate statistical approaches, including the new method of multi-trait genotype–ideotype distance (MGIDI), were used for evaluation. The analysis of variance revealed that genotype, environment, and their interactions had a highly significant effect on all traits. The same trend was shown by the additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis of variance for grain yield across the environments. The AMMI biplot study indicated that the G8 genotype is the most stable in terms of water stress. The G7 genotype can withstand droughts up to 55% of the available water, while the G8 and G3 genotypes can withstand droughts up to 70% of the available water. Based on all examined traits, this index was used to identify the stable genotypes G7, G8, and G3, which can therefore be suggested for cultivation during drought conditions. Furthermore, we found a positive correlation between the MGIDI, ANOVA, and tolerance index results, indicating that the same desirable genotypes of G7 and G8 were identified by these procedures as being highly tolerant and stable across a range of soil moisture conditions. Based on MGIDI analysis, we can recommend that the G7 genotype exhibits higher grain yield and yield-related traits with the best drought-tolerant indices.

The field experiment was conducted to evaluate the yield and yield components of four Egyptian wheat cultivars, namely Gemmeiza11, Giza 168, Sids 12, and Bani Sweif 5. The field experiment was laid out in RCBD design with three replications during the two growing seasons (2019/2020 and 2020/2021) at Abu El Matamir region, Beheira Governorate, Egypt. The current study screened the four Egyptian wheat cultivars for 11 traits, including the number of days to anthesis, number of days to physiological maturity, grain fill duration, plant height, number of spikes, number of grains per spike, grain weight, grain yield, straw yield, biological yield, and harvest index. For the number of days to anthesis, the highest genotype was Giza 168 in both seasons, while the lowest genotype was Sids 12 in 2019/2020 season and Bani Sweif 5 in 2020/2021 season. As regard days to maturity, the earliest genotype was Sids 12, whereas Gemmeiza 11 was the latest genotype in both seasons. The results also showed that Gemmeiza 11 had the highest value of grain fill duration in both seasons, while Giza 168 and Sids 12 had the lowest value in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons, respectively. For plant height, Gemmeiza 11 was the tallest genotype in both seasons, while the shortest genotype was Bani Sweif 5. Concerning the number of spikes /m2, the highest genotype was Bani Sweif 5 in both seasons. Concerning the number of grains/spike, the highest genotype was Sids 12 in both seasons. For grain weight and harvest index, the highest genotype was Gemmeiza 11, in both seasons. Concerning grain yield, straw yield, and biological yield, the highest genotype was Gemmeiza11 in 2019/2020 season and Bani Sweif 5 in 2020/2021 season.