🌾 Wheat

Basics

• Botanical name: Triticum spp.
• Family: Poaceae (Gramineae)
• Origin: South West Asia (Turkey)
• Generally, wheat is a self-pollinated, C3 and hexaploid plant.
• In India, it is second most important staple food crop after rice.
• Wheat is known as King of Cereals.

World

• Wheat is the largest staple food crop of world.
• India stands 2nd position in production of wheat after China.
• Area: India > Russia > China
• Production: China (18%) > India (10%) > Russia
• Productivity: Germany > China
• India’s share in global wheat production was recorded at 11.78 per cent in the year 2015-16.
• Major exporting countries: USA > Canada > Russia in 2016-17.
• India’s share in global exports was around 0.40 per cent in the year 2015-16.
• Major importing countries: Indonesia > Algeria > Italy
• India’s major export destination: Nepal > Bangladesh > UAE

India

• Area: UP
• Production: UP
• Productivity: Punjab
• The national average productivity of wheat is 26.5 qt/ha.

Botany

Triticum spp

• T. aestivum, is the most important species, occupying more than 90 per cent of the wheat area and 87 per cent of the total wheat production in the country.

• Research station:

  • Modern/Common bread wheat: CIMMYT, Mexico

    

  • Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal
  • AICRP on Wheat & Barley Improvement Project, Karnal

  

• Protein content in wheat is 10-11% (Gluten).

• Chapatti making/backing quality of wheat is mainly affected by Gluten strength.

• The inflorescence of wheat is known as Spike/Spikelets and the central zigzag axis is called as Rachis. Spikelets are composed flowers called Florets.
• Fruit of wheat is caryopsis.
• The flower of wheat is closed by Lemma and Palea and the extending portion of lemma is known as awn.
• Wheat plant has:
  • Seminal roots (Primary roots) – Temporary roots, responsible for nourishment the plants during early stage of crop.
  • Crown roots (Secondry roots)– Permanent roots, appeared 20-22 days after sowing (after or at tillering stage).

Climate

• Rabi Season Crop.
• Wheat crop favours cold 🥶 and moist weather 💦 during the vegetative growth period.
• Warm and dry climate 🥵 during grain formation.

• Wheat is a C3, self-pollinated and long day plant.
• Water requirement for proper growth is 600-900 mm.
• Indo-gangetic plain is the most suitable region for wheat cultivation.

Sowing

• 90 per cent of the wheat seed germination takes place after 4 to 8 days of sowing.
• Germination: Hypogeal

Sowing Date

Sowing Depth

• The dwarf wheat should be sown only at 5-6 cm depth as they have shorter coleoptiles. Seeding depth of 8-10 cm results in poor germination and reduced yield.
• Sowing depth of dwarf wheat is shallow, directly depend upon length of coleoptyle.
• Coleoptyle (main part of wheat seed) is immediately seen after germination.

FIRB

• Recent work shows that system of raised bed planting of crops may be particularly advantageous in areas where groundwater levels are falling and herbicide-resistant weeds are becoming a problem.
• Management of irrigation water is improved in simpler, and more efficient. On an average it uses, 25 to 40 % less water than flatbed methods and improves crop yields by more than 20%. FIRB planting saves 30% to 50% wheat seed compared to flatbed planting.

Zero Tillage

• Zero till drill seed-cum-fertilizer machine, developed from GBPUAT, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) is used in rice-wheat system for wheat cultivation without any ploughing i.e. direct seed sowing in wheat to save ploughing cost.
• The requirement of seed under zero tillage has been found to be around 20-25% higher as compared to conventional practices and the optimum seed rate is 140-150 kg/ha.
• Rice should be harvested near the ground and the left-over stubble should not be more than 15 cm in height.

Surface seeded Technology

• In parts of North-Eastern India soil remains wet for a long time after harvesting of rice crop and it is not possible to undertake tillage operations for growing wheat. In such areas dry or soaked wheat seeds can be broadcasted a few days before or immediately after harvest of the rice crop under wet/ saturated soil conditions.
• The cost of producing wheat is only 70-75 per cent as it eliminated the need for tillage operations.

Seed Rate

• Test weight of wheat grains is about 40 gm. While test weight of Phalaris minor is only 2 gm.

  

• To ward off threat to wheat production from the globally spreading menace of resistant varieties of Wheat Stem Rust-Ug99, DBW 17, PBW 550, Lok 1, and Turja identified.
• Most suitable cropping system for wheat crop is mixed cropping (Wheat + Mustard and Wheat + Chickpea).
• Four to Five rows of wheat grown in two rows of sugarcane is a popular intercrop practice.
• Relay copping of wheat in an early planted potato crop is a high bonus cropping system.
• To obtain maximum yield of wheat, 500 tillers per m² is required.

Irrigation Management

😐 We will study about Irrigation Management in Wheat in Water Management Course.

Fertilizer Management

Wheat Varieties

• • Dwarf gene introduced in wheat to develop dwarf wheat is Norin.
• Norin 👉🏻 Nor (Rht) = Reduced height (Genes 👉🏻 Rht1 and Rht2)
• Source of dwarfing gene is
  • Norin from Japan
  • Olsen dwarf from S. Rhodesia.
• 1st dwarf gene wheat variety is Norin-10, developed by Dr. N.E. Borlaug in 1961-62.
• Larma rojo is all three rust resistant variety of wheat.
• 1st time, Govt of India imported 100 kg of Mexican dwarf wheat varieties (Sanora-63, Sanora-64 and Larma rojo) in 1963.
• Triple gene dwarf wheat varieties were released during 1970.

Pusa Yashasvi

• Recently, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has released a new variety of wheat named Pusa Yashasvi.
• It is also known as HD-3226.
• It has higher genetic yield potential (at 79.6 quintals) as compared to other varieties of wheat.
• Pusa Yashasvi has a higher content of zinc, protein, and gluten (which contributes to the strength and elasticity of the dough).
• The best feature of this variety of wheat is that it is highly resistant against all major rust fungi viz. yellow/stripe, brown/leaf, and black/stem.

👉🏻 HD-2967 (Pusa Borlaug) & Pusa-3086 (Pusa Gautami): 40% Area of Wheat (IARI)

Weed Management

• Objectionable Weed – Convolvulus arvensis
• Associated Weed – Phalaris minor, Avena fatua and Chenopodium album
• Satelite Weed – Phalaris minor & Avena fatua
• Horrible Weed – Sorghum halepense
• Phalaris minor is found with dwarf wheat.
• Common herbicide used to control weeds is 2, 4-D. It is used as post-emergence herbicide. Milking stage of wheat is sensitive to 2, 4-D.

Harvesting

• The shelling percentage of wheat is 60 per cent.
• Harvest index = 40-45 per cent (0.4-0.45).
• Grain and straw ratio in Mexican Dwarf Wheat is 1 : 1.5.
• Grain moisture should be 20-25%.
• Safe storage moisture content of grain should be in the range of 10-12%.
• Irrigated condition: 40-45 q/ha.
• Rainfed condition: 20-25 q/ha.
• Average Yield: 30 q/ha.