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Wheat Information Service
Number 93: 22-26 (2001)
Research article

Breaking yield barriers in wheat - new plant type designed

S. S. Singh, J. B. Sharma, Nanak Chand and D. N. Sharma

Division of Genetics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-12, India


Summary

To achieve a quantum jump in wheat productivity in India, there is a need to design a new plant type combining negatively correlated yield components in a single genotype of very high yield potential. In this endeavor, a new plant type combining two negatively correlated traits (high tiller numbers with high grain weight and high grain weight with high grain number per ear) has been successfully developed resulting in significantly high yield. The second phase advanced generation materials, in pipeline, have optimum combination of all three yield components and carry alien genes (Lr24/Sr24) for resistance to leaf, stem, and stripe rusts giving further boost to yield potential. The newly designed plant type has characteristic features of moderate tillering (375 per m2 and above), all productive tillers, 50 and above grains per spike, grain weight between 45 and 50 g per 1000 grains, higher biomass, dark green, thick and broad leaves, thick stem, maturity duration between 120 to 135 days and plant height between 85 and 100 cm.

Key Words: wheat, yield components, plant type, rust resistance


Introduction

India witnessed the Green Revolution in mid 1960's due to large scale planting of high yielding, semi dwarf wheat varieties developed at CIMMYT, Mexico. The semidwarf wheats reduced the yield loss due to lodging resistance and were responsive to higher levels of inputs. The new plant architecture replacing tall types was responsible for increasing wheat yields from one tonne per hectare in early 1960's to nearly 2.7 tonnes per ha in late 1990. However, to keep pace with the population growth, India will need 109 m tonnes of wheat by the year 2020. To achieve this target, the average yield must be increased from 2.7 tonnes per ha to 4.0 tonnes per ha. To achieve this quantum jump in wheat productivity, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute initiated a strategic research in 1994 designing a new plant type. Optimally the new plant type has achieved the objective of three yield components, i.e., grain weight, grain number per spike and tillers per plant along with dark green thick and broad leaves and thick stems. This plant type is the first of its kind in the country and probably in the world.

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