Wheat

Abstract

Wheat, a preeminent crop as a food of mankind, is originated in the Central Asian region, which has 225 million ha with global production of 750 million tons. India holds the second position with 109.52 million tons of production and contributes 13% share to the global wheat basket. Wheat acreage has five zones in India where bread, durum, and dicoccum wheat are grown during the rabi season under different production conditions. Wheat improvement was initiated in 1905, and since then, it has reached present-day advancements after its journey through the green revolution. There have been many research advancements in the last 75 years, especially in the post-green revolution period, in the form of the development of more than 500 cultivars for commercial cultivation, different resource conservation and plant protection technologies, crop diversification strategies, product and nutritional quality traits, etc. Nowadays, stagnating yield potential, unavailability of sufficient quantity of quality seeds, low seed replacement, biotic and abiotic stresses in climate change conditions, restrictions to germplasm exchange in new IPR regime, reduced total factor productivity, imbalanced use of fertilizers and yield gaps at farm level have been identified as major challenges to wheat production in the country. The current pace of research efforts needs to be maintained to meet our future demands of 140 million tons by 2050, for which future research efforts would be focused on evolving new and innovative production technologies which can fit into the framework of changing wheat production scenarios. Some key strategic issues for enhanced production levels include breaking yield barriers through genetic enhancement, molecular approach for precision breeding, tailoring wheat genotypes with crop** system perspective, improved varieties for abiotic stresses, focused disease resistance breeding, access to quality seeds of wheat, conservation agriculture technologies, integrated input management, crop diversification, quality improvement, strengthening inter-institutional linkages and support in policy issues. Bridging the yield gap between experimental and farmers’ fields can solve the problem to a considerable extent. With support from farmers, policymakers, and extension units, it is expected that present technologies can be further refined and popularized so that wheat production can be enhanced to fulfill future demand for ensured national food security.