Wheat

Importance of wheat world wide as main food can be understood by use of stylized wheat spike as a symbol of FAO. Wheat is a major cereal in India after rice.The total estimated production of foodgrains in India during the year 2000-2001 was 195.92 million tonnes and the share of wheat was 68.76 million tonnes i.e. about 35 per cent. India has emerged as the 2nd largest producer of wheat after China and accounted for 12.06 per cent share of total world production of wheat. Due to sustained efforts made by policy makers, agricultural scientists, extension workers and receptive farmers, the production of wheat dramatically increased manifold on account of adoption of modern production technology. The production of wheat in India, which was merely 4 million tonnes during the year 1948 – 1949 increased spectacularly to 72.8 million tonnes in 2002 – 2003. The net per capita availability of wheat also increased from 65.7 gms. per day or 24.0 kgs. per annum in 1951 to 135.8 gms. or 49.6 kgs. in the year 2001.

Major Wheat Producing Countries in the World

India, China, USA, Russian Federation, Australia and Canada

Major Wheat Producing States in India

Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra

Zone-wise Commercial Varieties of Wheat

The wheat growing area of the country can be divided into 5 agronomic divisions (i) the Gangetic alluvium of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (ii) the Indus alluvium of Punjab and Haryana (iii) the black soils of Central and Southern India (iv) the hilly soils of the Himalaya and elsewhere and (v) the desert soils of Rajasthan. The first two divisions are most suitable for wheat cultivation.

About 190 high yielding varieties of wheat have been released so far, as suitable to different zones and cropping sequences. The improved wheat varieties suitable to various wheat zones are as under: