In Morocco, sugar-beet seed production represents a new challenge to meet the main breeding programme goals. The identification of a suitable zone for plant vernalization represents a bottleneck for seed production. This study aimed chiefly at evaluating the vernalization aptitude of 18 sugar beet half-sib progenies. Trials were conducted during three selection cycles in a specifically chosen environment. The experimental site of Merchouch is 40 km south-east of Rabat city. Field trials design is according to an open-pollinated experimental block. Yield components and five phenological traits were recorded during the growing cycle and at the plant maturation. The variance analysis showed a significant effect of the selection cycle on the phenological traits and grain yield. The plant cycle duration increased by 10.7 days between the first and the third selection cycles. According to the principal component analysis and the hierarchical clustering, F2, F5, F6, F9, F10, F11, F14 and F15 half-sib progenies are described as long cycle and high grain yield families. Grain yield reached 257.3 g per plant, the duration to maturity 350.6 days and the germination rate 93%. The three selection cycles and the suitability of the site vernalization conditions are potentially effective for seed production progress. Our results are relevant as they established an adequate site for the sugar beet seed production. The half-sib selection is a valuable method for sugar beet germplasm enhancement.

The aims of the current study were to investigate the effect of drought stress on phenological and morphological traits of sunflower genotypes and to determine the important traits for identifying drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive cultivars. For this purpose, a lattice square-design experiment was conducted with 64 sunflower genotypes in an 8 × 8 pattern with two replications under non-stress and moisture-stress conditions (irrigation holding at the flowering stage) during 2 years 2016 and 2017. Measured and recorded traits were included the some phenological and morphological traits seeds. Sil-96 genotype showed the highest yield under both non-stress and moisture-stress conditions. Among the morphological traits, the head and stem diameters were highly significant to determine the final yield. In comparing the genotypes, it was concluded that the number of seeds per head was the most influential component affecting the yield. Furthermore, 1000-seed weight was the most important factor affecting grain yield under moisture-stress conditions. The result of association analysis study shows that 45 of inter-simple sequence repeat markers in a general linear model are associated with yield and yield component traits and 23 of them were verified in a mixed linear model (MLM) association approach. Also, 32 markers were informative for morpho-physiological traits and 24 of them verified using the MLM. Finally, 19 informative markers were identified for phenological traits and 10 of them were verified by the MLM.