Indian scientists with significantly high yield have developed a wheat variety for farmers. The chapati from the flour of this wheat also scores high on quality. This wheat variety is called MACS 6478 which is developed by Scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.
Interestingly, it has doubled the crop yield for farmers in Karanjkhop, a village in Maharashtra. The farmers of the village in Koregaon tehsil of Satara district in Maharashtra are now getting a yield of 45-60 quintal/hectare with the new variety as against earlier average yield ranging 25-30 quintal/ hectare when they cultivated Lok 1, HD 2189 and other old varieties.
The newly developed common wheat or bread wheat, also called high yielding Aestivum, matures in 110 days. It is resistant to most races of leaf and stem rust. The amber colored medium sized grain contains 14 percent protein, 44.1 ppm zinc and 42.8 ppm iron which is higher than other cultivated varieties. A research paper on this variety has been published in ‘International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences’.
It can be noted that the chapati quality of flour of this wheat is excellent, having score of 8.05 with good bread quality scoring 6.93. Maharashtra State seed agency for seed multiplication, ‘Mahabeej’ is carrying out certified seed production of MACS 6478 for use by farmers.
With the efforts of a former seed certification officer & support from ARI staff, till now 10 farmers of the village have cultivated this variety on 14 acres of land. Farmers of Karanjkhop have also planned to establish a company for further seed production and other agricultural produce.
Mr. Ramesh Jadhav, a farmer, who witnessed all this change said "We needed one spark to motivate us and that is provided by ARI wheat variety MACS 6478. Now, we will never look back."
For more details contact-
Scientist Ajit M Chavan
Email- amchavan@aripune.org
Mobile- 919423007238
Genetics & Plant Breeding Group, and Dr PK Dhakephalkar, Director (Officiating), ARI, Pune, (director@aripune.org, pkdhakephalkar@aripune.org, 020-25325002)
