BARI develops wheat varieties tolerant of heat

Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has developed two wheat varieties tolerant of heat, which are expected to reach farmers by November this year, officials said.
The new heat-tolerant varieties-Bari Gom 29 and 30-are of short duration and can be cultivated in the areas where winter stays for a short period, according to the Wheat Research Centre (WRC) under BARI.
Dr Md Zahidul Islam Sarker, principal scientific officer of WRC at Dinajpur told the FE that the seed certification agency has certified the two varieties in November last year.
 "We expect to deliver the varieties to the farmers from the next wheat season," he said.
 "Bari Gom 30 is very early in maturity, which takes 100-105 days. Bari Gom 29 is medium in maturity, which takes 105-110 days to ripe," he said.
He said the two varieties are heat-tolerant and can resist diseases such as leaf blight, leaf rust and Ug99 race of stem rust, which can cause severe damage to crops.
Bari Gom 29 is also minianture in stature and tolerant to lodging, he said.
Grain of the two varieties is white amber and bold favoured most by consumers, he said.
Wheat is a winter crop in Bangladesh and grows well where the season stays for a long like Rangpur and Rajshahi regions.
WRC's challenge is to develop varieties, which can withstand heat during February-March period in different parts of the country, Dr Islam said.
The two varieties can tolerate up to 35 degree Celsius of temperature in grain-filling (ripening) periods in February-March, he said.
Per hectare yield of the varieties is 4-5 tonnes for Bari Gom 29 and for Bari Gom 30, it is 4.5-5.5 tonnes, according BARI.    
According to BARI, the organisation has developed a total of 30 varieties of wheat so far, which started with Sonora-64 and Kalyansona (Bari Gom 1, 2) varieties in 1968.
Bari Gom 24 (Prodip) and Bari Gom 21 (Shatabdi) covered 39 per cent and 35 per cent of total wheat land respectively in the financial year of 2012-13.
Recently developed Bari Gom 26 is being popularised as it covered 20 per cent in FY'14, up from 12 per cent in FY'13.  
Experts said varietal development is helpful for the growth of production of wheat.
Wheat production rose to 1.302 million tonnes in FY'14, highest in 11 years, mainly due to increased acreage, favourable weather and newly developed seed varieties, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The volume was 3.82 per cent higher than 1.254 million tonnes in FY'13, said BBS.
Dr Paritosh Kumar Malaker, acting director of WRC, said besides hike in acreage and having good weather, quality seeds also contributed to higher yields.
He said in particular, warmer temperature during the reproductive and grain-filling (ripening) periods had a significant negative impact on productivity.
Warmer minimum daily temperatures (nighttime temperatures) had the most significant impact on yield, he said.
So, farmers want more heat tolerant wheat varieties in order to prevent temperature-induced yield losses.
 "In the last four years, BARI developed six high-yielding heat-tolerant wheat seed varieties to get farmers interested in the crop," he said.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), wheat production hit a record high at 1.90 million tonnes in the 1999 financial year.
Wheat production, which fell to its lowest level at 0.358 million hectares in FY'12, has started gaining momentum since 2013 financial year after 11 years of stagnation.
The acreage rose to 0.429 million hectares in FY'14 from 0.416 million hectares In FY'13, according to BBS.
The country needs 4.0 million tonnes of wheat, two-thirds of which are imported every year.
Bangladesh imported 2.689 million tonnes of wheat in FY'14, up 44 per cent from that in the previous year, according to the Directorate General Food (DGoF).
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