Germplasm Field Day on Wheat and Barley organized

The Germplasm Field Day on Wheat and Barley     was organized at NBPGR Farms at Issapur and IARI Farm, New Delhi on 26 March 2015. The field day was attended by forty-five participants from 14 organizations namely ICAR-IIWBR, Karnal; ICAR- IARI, New Delhi; ICAR- NRCPB, New Delhi; ICAR-VPKAS, Almora; ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi; IARI-RS, Pusa, Bihar; IARI-RS, Indore; IARI-RS, Shimla; CCS HAU, Hisar; GBPUAT, Pantnagar; CSKHKV, RWRC, Malan; SKUAST-Kashmir; CCSU, Meerut; BARC, Mumbai etc. .

The Field Day was inaugurated by Dr. KC Bansal, Director, NBPGR. He impressed upon the breeders to make best use of available variability in the germplasm to broaden the genetic base of the varieties. Dr. Ashok Kumar, Head Germplasm Evaluation Division informed about the kind of material grown at Issapur farm and New Area Farm. All the participants visited the field where 4316 lines of wheat comprising core set (~2805 lines), reference set (~348 lines), rainfed evaluation (1483 lines) and 253 accessions were grown for evaluation against terminal heat and drought tolerance. During field visit, Dr. Bansal interacted and impressed upon the participants about the importance of variability present in the core set and their phenotyping for development of trait specific reference sets.  After lunch, the participants were taken to NBPGR Farm, IARI where 650 accessions were grown for evaluation against abiotic stresses. The participants selected the material suitable for various traits.

After Field visit, the participants assembled in Committee Room and interacted with Director, Heads of Division and scientists of the Bureau. All the participants expressed satisfaction and appreciated the efforts of NBPGR scientists and staff for making available the entire range of variability in the wheat core set. Detailed discussion was held on various topics like importance of lodging tolerance, rust resistance, root traits and detail phenotyping. Dr. RK Tyagi, Head, Germplasm Conservation Division requested the participants to submit the applications for registration of genetic stocks. Dr. Bansal, Director, NBPGR urged the scientists to utilize trait specific material in the breeding programme and make use of the information available on PGR Portal.

The field day concluded with vote of thanks.