BARI, CIMMYT to develop nutritionally enriched wheat varieties

Barani Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) Chakwal will collaborate with the International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) to get micronutrient based developed nurseries and will utilize it for breeding programme to develop nutritionally enriched wheat varieties.
This was stated by Dr Tariq Director Barani Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) Chakwal who visited CIMMYT, Mexico under the Punjab Agricultural Research Board (PARB) funded project entitled "Development of nutrient use efficient wheat germplasm for food security in rain fed areas of Pakistan".
During the visit wheat selections were also carried out from the advanced elite wheat material sown in the experimental station Obregon. Seventy-eight advance lines were selected on phenotypic basis, which will be provided to BARI, Chakwal after harvesting for further testing in the barani as well as irrigated areas of Punjab. Last year CIMMYT launched the wheat programme on micronutrients like Zn and Fe for the bio-fortification to combat the malnutrition in the South Asian countries.
Dr Tariq observed that in order to address the issue of edible oil import in Mexico, the government has suggested to plant safflower crop. Many farmers are cultivating this crop and according to them being a hard and drought tolerant crop they also get more economical gain as compared to wheat. "Seed of five varieties of safflower has also been brought to conduct experimental/adaptability studies in the low rain fall areas of rain fed tract".
Dr Tariq in a report submitted to the Punjab Agriculture Research Board (PARB) said that CIMMYT is focusing on the agriculture conservation by utilisation of resources. In rain fed areas the crop is irrigated through the high efficient irrigation systems like the sprinkler and drip. The most important aspect of conservation agriculture is that all the crops (wheat, maize, sorghum, safflower and soybean) are being cultivated on raised bed with residues of the previous crops. Moreover many farmers are using sprinkler irrigation for wheat and safflower crops. Majority of the farmers asses the crop need for nitrogen fertilisers (urea) through the facility of remote sensing provided by the farmers union (co-operative) at cost of $6/ha, and are saving 20-30 percent expenditure on nitrogen fertilizers and reducing the environmental pollution.
Many training activities were being carried out includes field visit of Sonora valley having 341 tube wells installed along the main canals, which were centralised through satellite. These tube wells pump out the water and put it in to the main canal, which provides water to the farmers' field. District government charges 52 $/ha for irrigation per annum. The average wheat yield of the valley is 6.2 tones/ha but the majority is getting 7 to 8 tones/ha. This wheat is exported to the developed countries especially USA to get the foreign exchange.
Dr Tariq also visited Obregon, experimental station of CIMMYT where scientists develop about 2000 wheat crosses per year for the varietal development. CIMMYT target is 2 percent annual yield increase through the agronomic practices. Demonstration was given on different wheat nurseries regarding to the rust resistance, kernel bunt, fusarium, stem rust Ug-99, heat tolerance, wheat quality and the development of early maturing varieties. CIMMYT is also taking the observations on the Pakistani germplasm like, Inqilab-91, Pak-81 and Mexipak. CIMMYT is running the synthetic wheat programme to develop the new diversity in the elite cultivated wheat varieties.
He was also showed the conservation based cropping systems and management, raised bed technology, zero tillage sprinkler irrigation and water conservation, assessment/diagnosis of nitrogen fertiliser through remote sensing, which is an efficient fertiliser application method help to save 20 percent fertiliser. The new intervention in the CIMMYT is the cultivation of safflower due to water shortage and to mitigate the edible oil import.