PAU Wheat Varieties Popular At National Level

Ludhiana, May 12, 2015: The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has developed a large number of wheat varieties for the Punjab state and majority of these have gained momentum at the national level. The PAU developed crop varieties are occupying larger areas in other states as well, said Dr Balwinder Singh, Director of Research, PAU. The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India finalizes/compiles the breeder seed indent of wheat varieties based on the demand/acceptability of the varieties by farmers at the national level. “A perusal of the 10 most indented (demanded) varieties of wheat at the national level revealed that the PAU wheat varieties had been occupying the largest share among all agricultural universities/institutes”, he highlighted. Averaged over the last five years, or last ten years or even last 20 years, three out of the ten most popular varieties at the national level were PAU varieties, he said. So much so that in one particular year (2008-09), as many as six out of top ten wheat varieties at national level in terms of breeder seed indent were from PAU. Even during the current year 2014-15, three wheat varieties PBW 550, PBW 590 and PBW 621 were among the top ten varieties at the national level with respect to breeder seed indent, he added. Besides the state of Punjab, seeds of these varieties are in great demand in other states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu &Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh etc., told Dr Singh. As per the Breeder and Nucleus Seed Production Program (BSP-1) 2014-15 circulated by the Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal, different agricultural universities in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have taken up breeder seed production of these popular PAU wheat varieties during the current crop season 2014-15, he disclosed.