Maintaining current high yields of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) grown in the Iran poses an environmental threat due to continued overuse of water. To reduce overreliance on inputs, future rapeseed breeding efforts should focus on improving tolerance of rapeseed to water utilizing appropriate tolerance mechanisms. In order to investigate water deficit effects on seed and oil yield and yield components in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) cultivars, an experiment was conducted at the research farm of the Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Karaj, Iran between 2007 and 2009. The experimental design was randomized completely block with a split-plot arrangement with three replications: Four irrigation levels consisting of irrigation after 80 mm evaporation from class “A” pan as control, no irrigation from stem elongation stage, flowering stage and podding stage were applied in main plots and subplots which consisted of split application of cultivars at six levels (Licord, SLM046, Okapi, Orient, Zarfam and Opera). The result showed that rapeseed cultivars and water stress significantly (p ≤ 0.05) affected all traits. The least reduction (p ≤ 0.05) of seed yield in water deficit conditions was observed in Zarfam cultivar, which also showed lower oil yield decrease (p ≤ 0.05) and best adaptation under water stress conditions.

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