Meeting the Challenge of Yellow Rust in Cereal Crops - ICARDA

nurseries from Oklahoma University are received for further selection in
Tajikistan. A National Wheat Breeding Programme was initiated through the
GTZ-CIMMYT Project “Regional Network on Wheat Variety Promotion and
Seed Multiplication”, and currently continues as Sida Project “Support to Seed
Industry Development in Tajikistan”. The germplasm used for the breeding
programme of Tajikistan originated mainly from CIMMYT, ICARDA, Turkey,
USA and Tajikistan. Several advanced lines have been selected by our research
group and are annually tested in Preliminary Yield Trials, and the best
advanced lines are submitted for official variety testing for release in
Tajikistan. The advanced lines that have been selected for high yield, improved
bread making quality and resistance to yellow rust and other diseases include:
PRINA/STAR, SHARK/F4105W2.1, VORONA/KAUZ//1D13.1/MLT,
CHEN/Aegilops squarosa/TAUS.RCN//3RAV and VORONA SNO79. Cvs
Attila, Ziroat 70, Tacikar, Ormon, Sadokat, Iqbol, Oriyon, Chilgazi, Isfara,
Yusufi and Vahdat, which were selected from IWWIP and ESWYT nurseries,
are in official testing. Cvs Alex, Norman, Orman and Somoni were recently
released.
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Introduction
Tajikistan is an agrarian country in which agriculture contributes 20–22% to
GDP. The total area of agricultural land is over 3.8 million hectare, most of
which is open grazing pasture. The area of arable land is only 709 000 ha, of
which 508 000 ha is irrigated. Every year, 500 000–600 000 t of seed-cotton,
900 000 t of wheat, 500 00–550 000 t of potato, 700 000–720 000 t of vegetables,
150 000–170 000 t of melons and water melons and 140 000–160 000 t of fruits
are produced.
The transition to a market economy, organization of new enterprises, and
the diversification of ownership have lead to massive structural changes in
agriculture. Despite these upheavals, production has gradually increased, and
over the past four years the average production of agricultural produce has
increased by 13.5%.
Further increase in production of agricultural produce requires
establishment of a firm technical base and resources. The population is
increasing rapidly and the scope for further expansion of agricultural land, and
irrigated land in particular, is limited. According to the forecast and current
growth rate there were 0.08 ha of arable land available per capita in 2008, of
which 0.06 ha was irrigated land. The four major crops—wheat, cotton, potato
and rice—on average contribute 37.3% of the value added in overall
agriculture. Wheat alone contributes 11.2% to agricultural domestic product
and 5.6% to GDP. During recent years, wheat has occupied about 307 000 to
310 000 ha and with total production of wheat about 640 000 to 650 000 t from
an average yield of 1.7–1.9 t/ha (Anon., 2008).