ICAR-IARI Develops 6 New High- Yielding & Disease Resistant Wheat Varieties

The regional station of the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has developed six new varieties of wheat. Among them, three are seen augmenting the production and quality of wheat in Madhya Pradesh.

The newly developed varieties which have resistant to many diseases stem and leaf rusts that harm the productivity and production of wheat have been notified of commercial usage in March 2023. The varieties namely, HI 1653 - Pusa Jagrati, HI 1650 - Pusa Ojaswi, HI 1654 - Pusa Aditi, HI 8826 – Pusa Poshtik, HI 1655 - Pusa Harsha, and HI 8830 -Pusa Kirti. HI 1650, HI 1655, and HI 8830 are released for the central zone including Madhya Pradesh.

ICAR- IARI regional station Indore principal scientist and head KC Sharma said, “Notified in March 2023, we have developed six new wheat varieties. These newly developed varieties have the high potential and will assist in boosting the productivity and quality of wheat.”

The HI 1650 variety released for the central zone is suitable for cultivation in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Udaipur, and Kota divisions of Rajasthan and Jhansi divisions of Uttar Pradesh. This is a 115 to 120 days maturing crop with a yield estimated at 5.72 tonnes per hectare.

Another variety, HI 1653 is a 145-150 days crop best suitable for bread, biscuit, chapati, and high sedimentation value of 57.7 ml. This variety is developed for the northwestern plain zones of the country.

The institute said the HI 1655 variety is suitable for Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and other Central Zone regions and has a yield capability of 5.98 tonnes per hectare under moisture-stress conditions, while HI 8830 is significantly high-yielding durum wheat. The HI 8826 is suitable for Karnataka, Maharashtra, and the plains of Tamil Nadu. It has a yield potential of 7.37 tonnes per hectare.

In Madhya Pradesh, wheat is cultivated on around 6.5 million hectares.