New wheat variety for Haryana, Punjab

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, August 8

Scientists of the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) has proposed that it will introduce a high yield wheat variety DBW-187 popularly known as “Karan Vandana” for farmers of North-Western states, including Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh.

In last December, the variety was released for North-Eastern states. Now, on the demand of farmers, the variety will be released for North-Western states provided the Centre gives its approval.

“The DBW-187 variety is rich in protein and iron. At a demonstration at the IIWBR, thousands of farmers from Haryana, Punjab, western UP and Rajasthan showed interest in the variety and demanded its seed. The IIWBR will send a proposal to the Centre for its release for North-Western states. We are hopeful,” said Dr GP Singh, Director, IIWBR.

Normally, the protein content in wheat is 10 to 12 per cent and iron content is 30 to 40 parts per million (PPM). But the DBW-187 variety will have more than 12 per cent of protein and more than 42 PPM of iron, he said, adding the yield from the DBW-187 variety will be around 7.5 tonnes per hectare in comparison with 6.5 tonnes from normal wheat varieties.

The Director added, “The new variety is resistant to yellow rust and wheat blast disease. It will replace wheat varieties HD-2967 and HD-3086.”