Has the wheat improvement programme succeeded in elating productivity growth across production environments of India?

Abstract

The mean yield of the released and pre-released bread wheat varieties was examined for the period 1990-2020 to study progress in yield enhancement under ten diverse production environments of India. Productivity growth was examined in two growing conditions i.e. timely and late-sown prevalent in five mega zones of the country. Progression in the timely-sown wheat was prominent in all five zones as the growth rate was highly significant. In the late-sown category, growth was highly significant only in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) and central India. Yield enhancement in western IGP was continuous and many impactful varieties had been developed on the other hand in varietal development was slow in central India. In comparison, varieties released in eastern IGP were large in number but the yield level was not high. Growth in grain number was eminent in most of the environments. Improvement in grain weight was also visible in timely-sown wheat of eastern IGP and peninsular India. Reduction in grain weight has been observed in timely-sown wheat of northern hills. Varietal expression of wheat genotypes had changed a lot in the peninsular zone as plant height was reduced in both categories of wheat and maturity duration was reduced in the timely-sown wheat. High deviations and low productivity has made the late-sown wheat vulnerable and non-remunerative in hills and peninsular India.