SALIENT ACHIEVEMENTS (SECTION-WISE) 

 Crop Improvement

• Through the AICRP on Wheat and Barley, a total of 480 high yielding wheat varieties have been released and notified for the different agro-ecological regions of the country, Of which, 311 wheat varieties have been released and notified by the CVRC, while 169 wheat varieties released by the SVRC. So far, 405 bread wheat varieties, 64 durum wheat, and 7 dicoccum wheat beside 4 triticale varieties have been notified.
• Among the 247 wheat genetic stocks registered by the Plant Germplasm Registration Committee of NBPGR, New Delhi, 140 genetic stocks are for biotic stresses, 42 for quality components, and 23 for abiotic stresses.
• Around 14000 wheat accessions are being conserved in the Medium Term Storage module at ICAR-IIWBR, Karnal. One set of these accessions are being maintained at Regional station  Dalang Maidan (Under Natural Condition) as safety duplicate accessions.
• During the last five years, the institute acquired 4282 new accessions and supplied 7844 accessions to different co-operators in the country.
• Around 400 new genotypes are tested every year in multilocation varietal yield evaluation trials.
• An average of 425 trial sets is prepared for different series of trials for conduction in 5 mega zones of the country at funded and voluntary centers.
• Stringent monitoring of the trials at different centers is conducted every year by a specific multidisciplinary team of scientists.
• Marker-assisted gene prospecting is carried out in final year AVT lines every year to observe genetic relationships among the genotypes.
• The water and heat stress tolerant wheat genotypes were identified for use in breeding programs for developing climate-resilient genotypes.
• Every year 8 national germplasm nurseries for specific traits and 2 segregating stock nurseries are supplied to the cooperating centres for selection and utilization in crop improvement activities.
• The international nurseries and trial sets received from CIMMYT and ICARDA are distributed to cooperating centers for evaluation and utilization in breeding programmes.

Crop Protection

• Crop Protection Programme helped in food security of the country by keeping vigil of pest and diseases, by identifying resistant sources which led to development of resistant wheat varieties and avoiding losses due to biotic stresses by cultivation of resistant varieties and following eco-friendly management options. The disease epidemic in the country during last four decades were avoided and thus greatly helped in food security of the country.
• Wheat crop health surveys were carried out extensively during the crop season and off season throughout the country for keeping vigil on insect pest and diseases. This helped in managing various insect pest and diseases in different parts of the country. Samples collected were analyzed for new wheat rusts pathotypes and thus breeding material was evaluated with new rusts pathotypes. This effort helped in avoiding losses to wheat crop due to biotic stresses.
• Identified 80 new pathotypes of wheat and barley rusts and sources conferring resistance to new pathotypes. Monitored pathotypic variability in wheat and barley rusts in India and neighbouring countries. Maintained national repository of 127 pathotypes of rust pathogens. DNA fingerprinted and sequenced three wheat rust pathogens.
• Rust resistance of all the advance wheat materials were made available and wheat varieties were deployed based on pathotypic differentiation.
• Twenty six diverse rust resistance genetic stocks were developed and registered.
• Organised and coordinated wheat disease monitoring nursery in India and SAARC countries.
• Evaluated all the AVT material of wheat and barley for rust resistance and genetics of rust resistance of wheat lines was characterized.
• Wheat Crop Health Newsletter were compiled and issued during crop season. Till date 21 Volumes were issued. Advisories for disease and insect pest management were issued as and when required for timely management of biotic stresses.
• Techniques creating artificial disease epiphytotics of different diseases and their rating to know the status of resistance in wheat entries were developed and standardized.
• Evaluated more than one lakh genotypes in different nurseries for insect pest and diseases under artificially inoculated conditions at multilocations under different crop protection nurseries. This helped in identifying multiple disease and insect pest resistant wheat genotypes. Resistant genotypes were utilized in the breeding programme which led to development and release of more than 400 wheat genotypes and more than 100 genetic stocks resistant to biotic stresses. Every year approximately 40 genotypes having multiple insect pest resistance were identified and recommended for use by the breeders for enhancing resistance in popular cultivars.
• Post-harvest analysis of wheat grain samples was accomplished. Every year approximately 10000 samples were analyzed for Karnal bunt and other seed borne diseases. This helped in identifying risk free zones for Karnal bunt and thus Indian wheat export was facilitated.
• Pathogenic and genetic variation among fungal pathogens of wheat (head scab, Karnal bunt, leaf blight) was studied.
• New molecules and formulations of pesticides were tested for different insect pest and diseases. This helped in recommending new insecticides, fungicides and nematicides as seed treatment or foliar spray for the effective management of biotic stresses.
• Integrated Pest Management was validated and promoted at farmers’ fields for management of biotic stresses.
• Farmers were taught for different biotic stresses and their management through trainings / field days / farmers fairs / electronic media etc.
• Training programmes were organized for capacity building for Indian and foreign scientists, extension and seed officers on identification and management of biotic stresses.
• The deployment of resistant varieties helped to keep environment and wheat safer thus contributed to better health.

 Resource Management

• The single cropped diara lands can be converted into double cropped area by surface seeding of wheat 10-15 days before or immediately after rice harvest using a seed rate of 150 kg/ha and recommended doses of fertilizer.
• Under rain fed conditions the seed rate of 100 kg/ha with row spacing of 23 cm under favorable moisture conditions was recommended whereas 100 kg/ha seed rate with 30 cm row spacing was recommended for more severe moisture limiting conditions.
• Diversification of rice wheat system by introducing short duration crop like potato/vegetable peas in between rice and late sowing wheat and introducing green maturing or pulses crop during the turnaround period after wheat harvest has been found to improve  soil fertility and profitability coupled with lower use of herbicides.

• Relay cropping of wheat in cotton should be adopted for higher productivity and profitability of cotton-wheat system. The seeding of wheat in cotton can be done by broadcasting dry or sprouted seed just after irrigation or zero till drilling by removing alternate rows of cotton using 25-50% higher seed rate.
• For optimum yield of wheat and higher nitrogen use efficiency, 1/3^rd N and full P & K should be placed as basal and 2/3^rd N at first node stage under both conventional and zero till systems.
• For optimum yield of wheat in sulphur deficient areas 25 to 50 kg S/ha through gypsum should be applied as basal.
• For dual purpose wheat (VL 829) in NHZ under rainfed condition 25% additional nitrogen and/or seed are required for getting optimal grain and green fodder yield (cutting at 85 DAS i.e. late jointing stage).
• In boron deficient soils, apply 10 Kg/ha Borax as basal dose for higher productivity
• To improve the nitrogen use efficiency urea top dressing should be done just before irrigation which also gave higher wheat productivity compared to top dressing after irrigation. Further improvement in nitrogen use efficiency can be made by using GreenSeeker technology.
• For efficient irrigation water management and higher wheat productivity first irrigation at CRI stage followed by irrigation at 50% depletion of available water or irrigating at 0.5 atmospheric soil water tension may be adopted. In addition, micro-irrigation i.e. drip or sprinkler gave 20 to 30% water savings with similar yield.
• The spray application of Isoproturon @ 1kg/ha at 35 days after sowing was recommended for good control of weeds in wheat. The herbicides like sulfosulfuron 25g/ha, clodinafop 60g/ha, fenoxaprop 100g/ha and metribuzin 175-210g/ha can be effectively used to control Phalaris minor where it has developed resistance against Isoproturon. For management of multiple herbicide resistance, application of Pandimethalian 1kg/ha as pre-emergence or flufenacet 300g/ha or pyroxasulfon 125 g/ha can be used for control the weeds in wheat crop.
• Isoguard, a chemical blind of isoproturon and 2,4 D (0.5+0.125 kg i./ha respectively) @ 1250 gm/ha applied at 30-35 DAS was found very effective for control of both grasses and broad leaved weeds.
• For control of broad leaved weeds metsulfuron @ 4g/ha & 2, 4-D @ 0.5 kg/ha should be used. To further broaden the spectrum of weed control metsulfuron+carfentrazone (Ready mix) + 0.2% NIS at 25g i./ha can be used.
• For control of complex weed flora in wheat, apply ready mix sulfosulfuron 25% + carfentrazone-ethyl 20% WDG at 45 (25+20) g i./ha with cationic surfactant of 625-750 ml/ha at 30-35 days after sowing.
• For broad spectrum weed control in wheat, apply ready mixture Vesta (clodinafop+ metsulfuron) and Total(Sulfosulfuron+ metsulfuron).
• The sowing of wheat by Rotary till drill saves on cost of tillage operation coupled with higher yields compared to other tillage practices.
• In zero tillage, similar seed, irrigation and fertilizer practices should be followed for cost effective wheat production. In the rice-wheat cropping system, zero-till sown summer green gram after wheat and vegetable pea after rice may be included to improve the overall system productivity.
• The need based nitrogen application using GreenSeeker saved 15-20 percent nitrogen without any yield penalty in both rice and wheat crops.
• There had been thinking that puddle rice must be replaced with direct seeded rice but it was not being adopted by the farmers. It has been found that rice yield reduction in direct seeded rice was 20-30% and in zero till transplanting it was about 10%.
• The wheat productivity in both zero and conventional tillage was the same. Hence, zero tillage should be adopted to increase the profit margins of the farmers.

 Quality

• About ten thousand wheat grain samples belonging to various trials like AVTs, NIVTs, IVTs, Special Trials and QCSN of AICW & BIP were analysedevery year and based on detailed physic-chemical, electrophoretic, rheological parameters, HMWGS and baking evaluation, promising varieties were identified for different wheat products like chapati, bread, biscuit and pasta.
• Genotypes belonging to both aestivum and T.durum were identified showing superiority in various quality traits including nutritional parameters so as to use them in breeding programme for the improvement of wheat quality. Variability in the quality characteristics and nutritional parameters was recorded in different zones of the country.
• Indigenous germplasm lines, exotic advance materials and nurseries wereanalysed for processing quality traits, nutritional quality parameters, baking evaluation and molecular characterization and promising lines were used in the breeding programme.
• For the genetic improvement of bread wheat in NWPZ, high protein, grain hardness index and gluten strength was combined in the background of high yield and disease resistance. Recycling new promising donors in the breeding and back crossing programme resulted in the advance (F⁶-F⁷) material blended with good yield & quality and tested in the co-ordinatedprogramme. Promising lines have identified as genetic stocks from QCSN.
• More than one thousand germplasm lines from NBPGR, New Delhi and grown at PAU, Ludhiana (NWPZ), BHU, Varanasi (NEPZ), JNKVV, Powerkheda (CZ) and ARI, Pune (PZ) every year were analysed for various quality parameters and superior lines were identified during the whole period.

Barley

• After the inception of All India Coordinated Barley Improvement Project in 1966-67 and later on merger with AICRP on wheat and named as All India Coordinated Wheat & Barley Improvement Project in 1997 a total of 95 varieties have been released for food, feed, malt and dual purposes.Out of 94 varieties, 48 varieties have been released from CVRC and 46 have been released by SVRC.For feed barley, 72 varieties have been released, whereas 31 were from CVRC and rest 41 varieties were released by SVRC.For food barley 8 hulless varieties have been released, where 4 were released from CVRC and SVRC each.In case of malt barley a total of 13 varieties were released mainly for high input conditions of NWPZ, where 12 varieties were released by CVRC and only one variety BH885 was released by SVRC.Two varieties namely RD2715 and BHS380 were released for dual purposes by CVRC for Irrigated timely sown in CZ and rainfed cultivation in NHZ, respectively. Varieties for salinity conditions have been developed. Recent and popular varieties are RD 2794, NDB 1173, RD 2552.
• A total of 21 genetic stocks have been registered in barley for disease resistance (09), quality traits (07), male sterility (04) and altered botanical characters (01).
• Breeder seed indents have increased by three folds during 2015-16 (1138.43q) from 360.55q as in 2005-06. Similarly, the breeder seed production has increased by 31.93 per cents during past ten years.In 2015-16, a total of 1123.57q breeder seed of 36 barley varieties was produced at 11 cooperating centres. A total of 47.45q nucleus seed was also produced for 36 varieties.
• In general, 10-14 coordinated breeding trials were constituted with nearly 110-120 entries which were evaluated with 20-30 checks for identifying high yielding, diseases resistant varieties.
• In general, 03 international trials and 03 international nurseries were received from ICARDA, which were grown and evaluated at Karnal and different cooperating centres.Two national nurseries namely EIBGN and NBGSN were constituted, evaluated and shared with 11 barley cooperating centres for germplasm enrichment. Three pathological nurseries i.e. IBDSN, NBDSN and EBDSN were constituted and grown at mulita-locations for pathological screening of advance and elite strains. These nurseries help in screening the new lines against diseases, pests and CCN, and help in developing resistant varieties.Nearly 800-1000 new accessions were received every year from CIMMYT, Mexico and ICARDA, Syria and these were evaluated and utilized in Barley Network Programme at different cooperating centers in India.
• Nearly 8159 barley germplasm (indigenous and exotic) are being maintained in medium term storage facility at Karnal.The entire set of the accessions has been evaluated for different biotic and biotic stresses as well as malting quality traits under a multi-locational network project with the support from AP Cess fund during last three crop seasons and the entire data has been digitized for easy retrieval and publication of the catalogue.94 reference varieties have been conserved, maintained and characterized for 32 DUS morphological descriptors in Barley Network.A total of 14 varieties from Farmer’s and private companies were characterized for DUS traits in Barley Network.
• A barley quality component screening nursery was constituted and grown multi-locational for quality traits evaluation.
• Linkages were established with ICARDA, ICRISAT and one externally funded CRP was completed in barley, where one CRP on hulless barley is under continuation.Linkages were also strengthened with private malting industries and a contract project trial and an oat evaluation trial was completed in collaboration with Boormalt India Pvt. Ltd. and PEPSICO company, respectively.
• Seed of different barley varieties namely DWRUB52, DWRB73, DWRUB64, DWRB91, DWRB92 and DWRB101 were provided to farmers, KVKs, SAU etc for popularization of barley and area expansion.
• IIWBR has taken up the contract research project to develop the barley varieties with better malting and brewing quality from the largest brewing company of the country (M/s United Brewery Ltd. Bangalore) and as a result of the project the varieties DWRUB 52 and DWRUB64 have been released and notified for the NWP Zone.
• In resource management section, response up to 60 kg N/ha under irrigated with few exceptions, which responded up to 90kg/ha was observed. Under rainfed conditions the response to N was observed up to 40kg/ha. In case of malt barley the N dose of 80kg/ha was optimum. Though the protein content in barley grain enhanced with the increase in nitrogen levels but within the accepted limits for brewing purposes.
• The reduced row to row spacing (18cm) for two-row malt barley has been recommended for higher productivity.
• Reduced tillage for field preparation before sowing was found suitable in terms of productivity, quality and profitability of barley.
• Integrated input supply (75 % inorganic+ 5t FYM/ha) in barley is found to be beneficial for improving productivity and quality of barley on sustainable basis.
• Production technology (stage of cutting, varieties selection, fertiliser & irrigation requirement) for dual purpose barley was standardized. In barley, two irrigation in sandy loam soils and three irrigation in loamy sand soils gave encouraging results in terms of better irrigation efficiency.
• Use of resource conservation techniques in barley may help to save energy and money and improve soil health. Optimum use of inputs, seed and fertilizer for malt and feed barley will also save input costs, increase productivity and improve soil health.
• Numbers of lines have been identified possessing resistance to the major diseases like rusts, leaf blights, nematodes, insect pests and those with multiple disease/multiple pest resistance.
• Evaluation for status of host resistance in new entries has been the major emphasis. More than 2000 entries were screened for adult plant resistance for rusts, blights, aphid and CCN under various nurseries viz, IBDSN, NBDSN and EBDSN under AICW&BIP programme.
• A Numbers of lines have been identified possessing resistance to the major diseases like rusts, leaf blights, nematodes, insect pests and those with multiple disease/multiple pest resistance.
• IPM modules have been finalised control of various diseases and pests in barley. For chemical control of leaf and stripe rusts spray of  Bayleton @ 0.1% has been recommended
• During last five years 1485 IBDSN entries, 664 NBDSN entries and 240 EBDSN entries were for resistance against various diseases, aphid and CCN in different cooperating centers.
• The genotypes found resistant to barley diseases during five years were retested for confirming multiple resistances and following were identified as sources of resistance to different diseases.
• Residue retention @ 6t /ha in barley crop and relay cropping of barley in cotton with 150 kg seed /ha recommended for better production and profitability
• Potential locations to grow barley that largely satisfies the product specific quality requirements for malting and brewing have been identified. Sources for different grain and malt traits have been identified from large number of accessions evaluated under network project and a few of them have been registered at NBPGR.
• Sources for different grain and malt traits have been identified from large number of accessions evaluated under barley network and have been utilized in national programme for malt barley breeding.
• IIWBR has served as a nodal point in popularizing the cultivation of new malt and feed barley varieties by utilizing Frontline Demonstration (FLD) scheme of the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. New technologies (varieties and production techniques) have been transferred to the farmers through Front Line Demonstrations in all barley growing zones (Nearly 70 FLDs conducted in each year during the Xth plan period) and gaps in yield potential were noticed as well as the new production technology to bridge them were demonstrated.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in barley

• Seed treatment with Vitavax Power @ 3g/kg of seed followed by seed treatment with Gaucho @ 0.06 g a.i./kg of seed at sowing.
• Foliar sprays of Tilt (25 EC) @ 0.1% at the appearance of rusts and foliar blight and later at 15 days intervals in case if need arise till physiological maturity.
• Foliar sprays of Confidor @ 20 g a.i./ ha at the appearance of foliar aphids and later at 15 days intervals till physiological maturity and as per need.
• Chemical control of foliage feeding barley aphids
• Foliar spray of new chemical, Clothianidin @ 15g ai/ha is recommended for management of aphids.