8th INTERNATIONAL WHEAT CONFERENCE

domeSTIC WheAT PRoduCTIoN ANd fuTuRe PRoSPeCTS
S.S. Singh
Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal-132 001
E-mail Address of presenting author: sssinghindia@rediffmail.com, pdwhat@dwr.in
India, one of the greatest success stories of scientific achievement for welfare of mankind,
is the second largest producer of wheat in the world after China. Wheat is the second
most important crop after rice in India has touched a new height of 80.56 million tons
in 2008-09(4 th advance estimates, DAC, MoA, GOI) from 27.8 million hectare area. On
the other hand, India is also the second largest wheat consumer after China. Thus, wheat
and its various products play an increasingly important role in managing India’s food
security and India became the wheat surplus nation as against the wheat deficient nation
during 1960’s. The tremendous progress in area, production and productivity of wheat
to the tune of 2.9, 12.2 and 4.2 times, respectively as compared to 1950 has made India
the member of elite group of wheat exporting countries. Wheat in India is cultivated in
almost every state except Kerala, thus representing diverse crop growing conditions and
situations. About 91.5% of the wheat produced in six states viz. Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,
Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar. On average basis of last five years, Uttar
Pradesh with 24.25 million tons(mt) continues to be the highest producer of wheat
followed by Punjab (14.67 mt) and Haryana (9.13 mt). The contribution from Haryana
and Punjab is mainly attributed to their high productivity(4.0 to 4.3 tons/ha) whereas the
contribution of other states such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is due to relatively
large area(aprox. 50% of the total area) sown to wheat.
Wheat species and the zones
There are three species of wheat namely, Triticum aestivum (Bread wheat), Triticum
durum(Macaroni wheat) and Triticum dicoccum (Emmer or Khapli) grown on commercial
basis in India. Of these species, T. aestivum continues to be the most important species
accounting about 90-95% of total wheat area of the country and is grown in almost all
the wheat growing states. T.durum is next in importance with approximately 5% of total
wheat area and confined mostly to central and southern parts of India. The cultivation of
T.dicoccum is confined largely to the southern region mainly Karnataka and southern Maharashtra.
Based on the agro-climatic conditions and varying agro-ecological production
conditions the country is broadly divided into six wheat growing zones namely Northern
Hills Zone (NHZ), North Western Plain Zone (NWPZ), North Eastern Plain Zone (NEPZ),
Central Zone (CZ), Peninsular Zone (PZ) and Southern Hill Zone(SHZ). Wheat is mainly
grown under three production conditions, viz., timely sown, medium to good fertility, irrigated;
late sown, medium fertility, irrigated and timely sown, low fertility, rainfed. In recent
years, a new situation of timely sown, restricted/limited irrigation has emerged in some of
the areas of the central and peninsular parts where water for irrigation is not available in
sufficient quantity and thus, the wheat crop is grown with one to two irrigations only.
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