A paradigm shift in quality of modern bread wheat varieties cultivated in north-western plains of India

Abstract

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a prominent staple food crop spread over different agro-ecological regions of India. The national wheat research system of the country i.e. All India Coordinated Research Project on Wheat and Barley (AICRPW&B) has classified these regions as northern hills zone (NHZ), north-western plains zone (NWPZ), north-eastern plains zone (NEPZ), central zone (CZ) and peninsular zone (PZ). It has generated data on quality traits of irrigated wheat varieties popular in timely-sown and late-sown conditions of these five zones. Depending upon the quality of the materials developed for each production environment, every production environment has some characteristic features of value addition and agronomic properties. Strength and the pitfalls are therefore liable to differ under diverse production environments. Traditionally, wheat harnessed in the Central and Peninsular India is rated high in quality. Emphasis given to wheat quality in the present era has brought tremendous difference in value addition properties of wheat. Reports emerging from India have underlined progression in many parts of the country not only for productivity but for quality of the wheat as well (Mohan et al., 2017). Value addition properties are changing fast in the Indian wheat, especially in the NWPZ. The present study has examined wheat quality characteristics of the irrigated wheat varieties released from 2010 onwards. An attempt has been made to emulate the strength and weakness in quality of the modern wheat varieties harnessed in the different production environments.