New Delhi: Amid the hue and cry over the sudden ban on wheat export due to loss of crop yield, the Union Agriculture Ministry has notified ten varieties of heat-tolerant seeds of wheat for all the four zones comprising states like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, etc.
According to an agriculture ministry official, who wished not to be named, the grains of heat-tolerant wheat varieties would not get shriveled even at above 30 degrees of temperature.
The ministry has released five heat-tolerant seed varieties for the north western plains zone (NWPZ), which has the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan (excluding Kota and Udaipur division), Western Uttar Pradesh (except Jhansi), Jammu and Kathua district of J&K, Paonta Valley and Una district of Himachal Pradesh and Tarai region of Uttarakhand. The varieties are DBW327, DBW332, JKW261, DBW 296 and HUW838.
One seed variety of wheat namely DBW222 has been notified for the north eastern plains zone, which comprises Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, and plains of north eastern states.
Four varieties of heat-tolerant wheat seed have been released for the central zone that comprises the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan (Kota and Udaipur), and Uttar Pradesh (Jhansi). Three varieties – DBW187, GW513, and HI1636 – are of bread wheat, while one variety – HI8823 (d) – is of durum seed.
For the peninsular zone, which includes the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, plains of Tamil Nadu, the ministry has notified one variety – MP1358 – of bread wheat.
Notably, all the varieties of heat-tolerant wheat seeds are developed by the scientists of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), which is the apex body for coordinating, guiding, and managing research and education in agriculture in the entire country under the aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.