The increasing global population demands potential high-yielding wheat genotypes, even under changing climatic conditions. Wheat Research Institute (WRI), Faisalabad, designed a two-year study during 2018–2020, following augmented block design, to assess the association between yield and quality parameters in 245 bread wheat genotypes, including 10 checks. Separating all genotypes into four sets was according to their origin, i.e., local landraces, exotic material from CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), Pakistani accessions, and miscellaneous. A sufficient amount of genetic variation among all the genotypes for the measured traits was evident from the analysis of variance (ANOVA). Correlation studies demonstrated a similar trend of association among traits in Pakistani and CIMMYT lines, but distinct patterns of association among landraces and mixed genotypes occurred. The whole population of diversified germplasm showed a positive association of yield with all the traits except chapatti quality, pH of flour, and gluten during 2018–2019. Similarly, in 2019–2020, grain yield was positively associated with all the traits except test weight, chapatti quality, and pH of flour. The attributes responsible for the grain size, i.e., grain length, width, thickness, and a thousand kernel weight, expressed a strong association among each other and with the grain yield. A positive correlation between grain yield and grain quality characters (bread and chapatti quality, test weight, gluten, and protein) emerged in the pre-green revolution germplasm during both years, which can benefit wheat quality improvement. The study concluded that for future wheat breeding
wheat, population, hunger, grain size, quality, trait association
For the selection of wheat genotypes with high-yielding potential, the seed traits (grain size: length, width, thickness, a thousand kernel weight, and test weight) should require more importance. The study indicated that to improve the quality of modern wheat cultivars, more focus on using pre-green revolution era wheat materials should materialize in the wheat breeding programs.