In the 2019-20 season, small-scale field trials have been undertaken in Italy, Turkey and Algeria. Locations in the respective countries included:
- Italy (P0, UNITUS) - Viterbo (300 m a.s.l.), Central Italy, about 80 Km North of Rome and 60 Km away from the Tirreanean (West) Coast. The location is characterized by overall favorable environmental conditions for DW production (typical to the area), with average annual rainfall of 790 mm and average temperature of 14.5°C: Terminal drought and heat stress commonly occur at the site;
- Turkey (P3, HARRAN) - Two localities in SE Anatolia: 1. Sanliurfa (370 m a.s.l.), located in the Harran plain, in the country's DW belt, commonly experiences severe terminal drought and heat stress. Here DW is mostly grown with supplementary irrigation (causing soil salinization); 2. Adiyaman, located in a montanous region, 100 km away from Sanliurfa, where DW is grown under both rainfed and irrigated conditions (water from nearby Atatürk dam lake);
- Algeria (P4, UFAS1; P5, CRSTRA) - Two very different environments: 1. Sétif (P4), located at 1096 m a.s.l., in the NE of the country, with a semi-arid climate and average annual rainfall of 376 mm; severe drought occurs in May-September (almost no rainfall, maximum temperature > 30°C). Spring frost episodes may occur, causing injury to crop at flowering stage; 2. Biskra (P5), located at 87 m a.s.l., in a desert province just South of the Saharan Atlas, with mean annual temperature of 22°C and mean annual precipitation of 140 mm. Supplementary irrigation is usually provided.
The shared set consisted of 74 entries, including 43 durum wheat (DW) varieties, 17 DW-alien recombinant lines and their controls and 14 DW-wild wheat relatives (WWRs) amphiploids (see Introduction to this section for more details). The varieties' sub-set comprised 18 provided from the Italian partner (P0), 19 provided from the Turkish partner (P3), 5 from the Tunisian partner (P2) and 1, an Algerian variety available to P0. Unfortunately, the Algerian partners could not provide any seed material to share with the other partners, due to not yet overcome obstacles in the delivery, still imposed by the local authorities. As a result, only the Algerian partners, (P4) and (P5) could include additional local varieties in the comparative trial.
The proposed field arrangement of the materials (shared set) was of rows (1.2 m long in Italy and Algeria; 2 m long in Turkey) of spaced plants (about 10 cm between plants along the row, and about 25 cm between rows). Seeds provided by P0 (following a preceding seed multiplication phase) was sufficient for 3 rows/line in each trial. The complete set could thus be triplicated in each locality, with all entries being randomized in the three replicas. Furthermore, in the Italian and Turkish locations, double sets (each with triplicated entries) have been arranged, one grown under rainfed, the other under irrigated conditions.
In addition to the shared set, in the two Turkish locations (see above) partner P3 hosted in his comparative plot trials some of the most advanced DW-alien recombinant lines developed by P0 (UNITUS). Each trial included 3 plots of 4.8 m2 for all entries (10 from P0 + 17 from P3), and in each locality the 27 entries were tested under rainfed and irrigated conditions.