Germplasm Field Day on Wheat and Barley organized at ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi 29 March 2022

The Germplasm Field Day on Wheat and Barley was organized at NBPGR Experimental Farm, Issapur, New Delhi on 29 March 2022. It was attended by fifty-five participants from 12 organizations namely CIMMYT-India, DBT, ICAR- IARI, New Delhi; ICAR-VPKAS, Almora; ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi; ICAR-NIPB, New Delhi; ICAR-IIWBR, Karnal; ICAR-IARI, Ranchi; BHU, Varanasi; CCS University, Meerut and GBPUAT, Pantanagar including four farmers of nearby villages. Dr. P K Gupta, Emeritus Professor, CCS University, Meerut was the Chief Guest of the function and other dignitaries, Dr Arun Kumar Joshi, CIMMYT Regional Representative for Asia and MD, BISA and Dr. Sanjay Kalia, DBT graced the occasion. At the outset, Dr. R K Gautam, Head, Division of Germplasm Evaluation ICAR-NBPGR apprised about the wheat and barley germplasm being grown at NBPGR, Issapur farm. Dr. Ashok Kumar, Director, ICAR-NBPGR welcomed the Chief Guest and dignitaries and all the participants and highlighted the importance of genetic resources and field days for their effective utilization. He also expressed his interest in effective collaboration for trait specific evaluation by NARS. Dr. P K Gupta briefed about his science path journey and encouraged the researchers to work hard for achieving success. Dr. A K Joshi, emphasized about the active collaboration of ICAR and CIMMYT-BISA. Dr. Kalia emphasized about the development of donor for utilization in wheat improvement. Dr. Sundeep Kumar gave the overview of experiments under DBT network project. The participants visited the Issapur farm where 3289 diverse wheat and barley accessions are being grown for characterization, evaluation and multiplication. This included 500 selected wheat accessions for drought tolerance under DBT project, 652 wheat accessions including trait specific germplasm and NIR core for validation and multiplication, 1414 accessions of durum wheat comprising NGB durum core, Global durum panel and landraces, 45 accessions of sphaerococcum wheat for abiotic stress evaluation and 678 barley accessions (core set) for validation and demonstration.

The participants selected germplasm of their interest according to their breeding objectives. During interaction, the participants appreciated the efforts of ICAR-NBPGR in showcasing the utilizable wheat and barley genetic resources i.e. trait specific germplasm, barley core and crop diversity in landraces. The farmers were very excited to see the material and evinced keen interest in wheat material with high sweetness, bold seeds and thick stem. The detailed discussion was held with participants on issues like evaluation of wheat landraces for biofortification traits and development of Karnal bunt resistant material for enhancing the export value of wheat, submission of utilization feedback forms, etc. The program was concluded with the vote of thanks by Dr. Jyoti Kumari.