The productivity and resilience of durum wheat have been enhanced through the selection of accessions, optimizing agronomic and quality traits to address environmental challenges. This study evaluates the performance of 219 durum wheat accessions, including 120 elite lines from a national breeding program (G1 to G120), 63 international lines (G121 to G183), 27 Moroccan varieties (including Faraj, Karim, Tomouh, Marzak, Amria, Chaoui, IRDEN, and others), and nine landraces (G211 to G219, from Imilchil, Rich, and Taounate regions). Trials were conducted at the Jemâa Shaïm experimental station (INRA-Morocco) with an “Alpha lattice” design and two replications. Significant correlations were observed between spike length (SL) and number of spikelets per spike (SPS) (r = 0.950; p < 0.001), and between grain yield (GY) and thousand-kernel weight (TKW) (r = 0.530; p < 0.01), while no correlation was found between quality parameters and GY (r = 0.010; p > 0.05). Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that agronomic traits explained 77.12% of variability, while quality traits accounted for 95.54%. Elite lines exhibited a high yellow pigment index (14.90), important for technological quality. Traditional landraces performed well in spike length (8.78 cm), thousand-kernel weight (50.23 g), protein content (17.07%), and gluten content (36.90%). Moroccan varieties such as Faraj achieved a grain yield of 6.12 t/ha, while international lines showed the highest SDS value (9.39 mL). These findings highlight the potential of diverse accessions for developing high-yielding, high-quality durum wheat.

Wheat occupies a prominent place at the national and international levels. This food crop is considered a main source of human and animal nutrition. Water stress is one of the main causes of the decline in bread wheat production in Morocco. Therefore, breeding for resilient varieties is of great importance to overcome this challenge. In this context, the main objective of this study is to assess the impact of drought on the productivity of bread wheat and to determine the key selection criteria for drought tolerance in a Mediterranean environment. To do this, 31 varieties and lines of bread wheat were evaluated at two contrasted INRA experimental stations during the 2020–2021 cropping season. Five productivity and quality parameters were assessed: grain yield, biomass, number of fertile spikes, thousand grain weight, and protein content. The results demonstrate the negative impact of water stress on the various parameters studied, except for the protein content which was higher in arid conditions compared to the favourable ones. Based on correlation analysis, the number of fertile spikes and the biomass could constitute the potential selection criteria for drought resistance. These trials will be repeated for several years under the effect of other intensities of stress and agro-ecosystems and by incorporating other parameters to confirm the results obtained. The line “BT19I5” showed great yield potential under both conditions and can be of great interest for farmers and for potential release at the national program.