Research Highlights of the CIMMYT Wheat Program 1999-2000

Farmer Participatory Variety Selection in South Asia
1
G. Ortiz-Ferrara, 2 M.R. Bhatta, 2 T. Pokharel, 3 A. Mudwari, 3
D.B. Thapa, 4 A.K. Joshi, 4 R. Chand, 5 D. Muhammad, 1
E. Duveiller, 1 and S. Rajaram 6
The CIMMYT Wheat Program has been associated
with the NARSs of South Asia for the last 35 years.
Over this period, South Asian countries have
identified and released many improved wheat
varieties that have played an important role in
increasing average grain yield and total production
in the region. On average, South Asia maintained
an annual production growth rate of 3.5% from
1985 to 1997 (Pingali, 1999). Despite these
achievements, and due mainly to the high
population growth rate (2.2% per year), by 2020 the
region is expected to face a net trade deficit of 21
million tons of wheat grain, mostly in Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and Nepal (Rosegrant et al., 1995;
Table 1).
Average productivity in the more productive areas
of South Asia (e.g., Punjab of Pakistan and India,
Terai of Nepal, northern Bangladesh) has leveled
Table 1. Wheat production, consumption, and imports (in
millions of tons).
Production Demand Net trade
Region/Country 1990 2020 1990 2020 1990 2020
World 530 841 532 841 -2 0
DC 304 409 242 287 62 122
LDC 227 432 289 553 -62 -121
South Asia 66 127 69 148 -3 -21
Bangladesh 1 2 3 6 -2 -4
India 49 96 48 95 1 1
Pakistan 14 27 16 42 -2 -15
Other South Asia 1 1 2 3 -1 -2
Source: Rosegrant et al. (1995).
1 CIMMYT-South Asia Regional Office, Kathmandu, Nepal.
2 NWRP-NARC, Bhairahawa Agric. Res. Station, Bhairahawa,
Nepal.
3 NARC, Agronomic Botany Division, Khumaltar,
Kathmandu, Nepal.
4 Banaras Hindu University, Dept. of Genetics and Plant
Breeding, Varanasi, India.
5 Agha Khan Rural Support Program, Gilgit, Pakistan.
6 Director, Wheat Program, CIMMYT.
off. Since the cultivated area in these countries
increases by only 1% each year, the required jump
in production will have to come from the less
productive areas (e.g., eastern, far eastern, and
central India, hills of Nepal, and northern and
western Pakistan). In these marginal areas, the yield
gap between experiment stations and farmers’
fields is wider than in the more productive
environments of the region. The most commonly
grown varieties are old improved varieties such as
Sonalika and HUW 234, as well as local, lowyielding,
disease-susceptible varieties.
Besides the low adoption rate of improved varieties
in these marginal areas, constraints such as poor
seed production infrastructure and lack of
appropriate technology transfer programs
contribute to the wide yield gap. Another important
factor is the lack of diversity in improved wheat
varieties grown by farmers. This is very risky, since
a single change in the virulence of a foliar pathogen
could cause significant yield losses. Serious yield
losses were reported in Pakistan (and other Asian
countries) in the early 1990s, when the main variety
grown at that time (Pak 81) was hit by a new race of
yellow rust. Table 2 shows the total wheat area,
average yield, production, and estimated area
grown to a single variety in several countries
during the 1999-2000 wheat season.
To help the NARSs of South Asia meet these
challenges, for the past four years the CIMMYT
Wheat Program has made special efforts to
strengthen wheat research focused on the less
productive areas of the region. Besides the ongoing
exchange of germplasm and information, CIMMYT,
through its South Asia regional wheat program, has
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