Development and Evaluation of High Yielding, Multiple Disease Resistant Bread Wheat Variety – GW 513

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L., 2n = 6x = 42, AABBDD) is staple food of 35% of the world’spopulation and provides ~20% of the protein consumed by humans (Shifrew et al., 2013). To meet the growing demand of wheat with shrinking acreage, has been a challenge to sustain wheat production. Estimates are that to feed the increased human population of about 9 billion by 2050, wheat production will need to be increased by more than 60%, which is a huge challenge considering the changing global climate and reducing arable land (Muller et al., 2018). Genetic improvements in wheat playa crucial role in enhancing crop productivity and in meeting the current and future food security requirements. Breeders throughout the world including India have succeeded in achieving significant gain in productivity (Rajaram and van Ginkel, 1996).

The All India Coordinated Wheat Improvement Project (AICWIP) was started in 1965 is one of the largest crop improvement network projects which set the dawn for the ‘Green Revolution’ in India. Indian wheat area is divided into five agro-climatic zones due to diverse production environments viz., Northern Hills Zone (NHZ), NorthWestern Plains Zone (NWPZ), NorthEastern Plains Zone (NEPZ), Central Zone (CZ) and Peninsular Zone (PZ). Under this project, several high-yielding wheat varieties have been developed which became extensively popular and adopted by the farming community. For instance, C 306, HD 2009, WL 711, UP 262, HUW 234, HD 2189, WH 147, Lok 1, HI 617 (Sujata), HD 2285, HD 2329, PBW 343, Raj 3765, PBW 502, HD 2733, HD 2967, HD 3086, DBW 17, PBW 550, GW 273, GW 322, GW 496, HD 2967, HD 3086, DBW 187 and WB 2 in bread wheat were developed and became the popular deliverables of the project. Apart from the aforementioned varieties, viz., NP 4, Kalyansona, Sonalika, Sharbati Sonora, WL 711, HD 1220, HD 1931 ‘SIB’, HD 2009, HD 2172, UP 262, etc., developed through the AICWIP were also cultivated beyond national borders. (Sharma et. al., 2014)

The Central Zone comprises Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan (Kota and Udaipur divisions) and Uttar Pradesh (Jhansi division). In CZwheat is cultivated in around 6.84 million ha area and estimated production was 22.37 mtwith productivity of 2978 kg/ha and this zone is also having sizeable area under durum wheat. CZ is the third largest wheat producing zone of India which occupies 23.15% of total area and accounts for 20.37% of the total production of wheat in the country. In Central Zone of India, the major constraints are characterized by the non-availability of labour, imbalanced use of fertilizer, high temperature at maturity, limited accessibility to seed of newly released variety, temperature fluctuation during crop growth, high cost of inputs, lack of irrigation facilities, small land holding, decline in water table, untimely rain limit the wheat productivity. The CZ of wheat is known for premium quality bread wheat having typically hard lustrous grains with high gluten strength. Thus the need to focus research on new emerging issues like change in the dynamics of diseases and pests under changing climatic condition as well as improvement in quality traits of wheat in Central Zone of India. Development and evaluation of disease resistant wheat lines has contributed in successful implementation of breeding goals across wheat improvement programs in the country (Kumar et al., 2014, Yadav et al., 2017). In CZ, Lok 1 was the most preferred wheat variety by the farmers of this zone till 2005 developed by Lokbharti Gramvidyapith. Three varieties viz., GW 322, GW 366 & HI 1544 under timely-sown condition harvested the wheat yield up to 51.2 q/ha. Of late Lok 1 has become susceptible to black and brown rust of wheat. In this perspective, a new wheat genotype GW 513 has recently been developed and released for cultivation in central zone (Gupta et al., 2023).