India: Climate-resistant wheat sown in almost 85% area this year, says survey

Amid concerns over the impact of a cooler winter on rabi crops this year, a survey of the standing wheat crops in some main growing states by senior agriculture ministry officials has found that almost 85 per cent of the sown area under the crop is under climate resistant varieties. This should protect the crop yield from the impact of any unusual weather movement in the coming months. Officials said the surveyors found that wheat sowing was delayed only in those parts where sugarcane crop hadn’t been fully harvested.

For such areas, they have recommended late sown varieties such as PBW 752, PBW 771, DBW 173, JKW 261, HD 3059 and WH 1021 up to December, 2023 and HI 1621 and HD 3271 WR 544 if sowing is done beyond December 25th.

The survey team comprised agriculture commissioner government of India, Director of ICAR’s Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) and other senior officials including representatives from state governments.

The officials also advised the farmers to form product specific clusters for a segregated market, adopt latest climate resilient as well as bio fortified crop varieties for higher yield and better nutrition quality.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its forecast for the winter months of December to February recently said that winter might be less severe this year across the country due to the impact of El Nino and other local factors.

Till last week, wheat was sown in around 18.79 million hectares which was just around 5 per cent less than the area covered during the same period of last year.