Climate-resilient wheat may push yield to 114 MT

Tribune News Service

Neeraj Mohan

New Delhi, December 28

The upcoming rabi harvesting season may witness a historic milestone with the country’s wheat production poised to reach an unprecedented 114 million tonne (MT).

Record high in 2023

• In 2022, India’s wheat production fell to 107.74 MT from 109.59 MT in 2021 due to a heat wave in March
• But in 2023, it scaled unprecedented heights, surging to 110.55 MT against 112 MT target
• It rose by 4.8 million tonnes; average yield is 105.73 MT

Farm experts attribute this optimistic forecast to the widespread adoption of high-yielding and climate-resilient wheat varieties, covering nearly 60 per cent of the wheat growing area, coupled with favourable weather conditions and timely advisories being issued to the farmers.

Despite a slightly reduced wheat cultivation area which has reached around 31 million hectares compared to the previous year’s 31.44 million hectares, scientists of the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal, are hopeful that the country’s wheat production would achieve the highest-ever target of 114 MT. According to the scientists, the key factor behind expected bumper produce is that over 60 per cent of the total wheat acreage is covered under the high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties, including DBW 296, DBW 327, DBW 332, DBW 303, DBW 187, DBW 222, WH1270 and PBW 771.

“In the past two years, a total 25 new varieties with climate resilient values have been identified. Eleven varieties were given to farmers this year,” said Gyanendra Singh, Director, ICAR-IIWBR, Karnal. He said the next target was to cover 80 per cent of the total area under wheat cultivation with the newly developed varieties.

Virender Singh Lather, retired principal scientist, Indian Agricultural Institute, ICAR, New Delhi, said the climate-resilient varieties showed tolerance against the climatic extremes of high or low temperatures and humidity. These varieties provided stability of crop yield and overall agricultural production.

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