REPORT - Search CIMMYT repository

!las been done by Dr. Mario Vela of the CIANO
staff, and by Dr. Reggie Laird and colleagues.
Up to the present time the most detailed
research work to develop adequate and effective
cultural practices for growing triple dwarf
wheats has been done by the All-India Coordinate
Wheat Improvement Program. They are
now much more advanced in this agronomic
research than is the CIMMYT-Mexican program.
IMPROVEMENT OF WHEAT QUALITY
1. Improvement of Industrial Quality
Ten years ago the commercial Mexican
wheat varieties were, with few exceptions,
poor in milling and baking quality. Prior to
1958 no adequate cereal technology laboratory
existed to guide the breeding program and
advanced lines which had shown promise from
a yield and agronomic standpoint were sent
to laboratories in the U.S.A. for quality determinations.
When the first Cereal Technology
Laboratory was established in Chapingo in 1958
conventional methods used in laboratories in
the U.S.A. and Canada were adapted. It soon
became evident that these methods were inadequate
for the diverse needs of Mexico; they
provided no direct ties between the quality
problems confronting cereal breeders and the
cereal technologists. By 1962 it became obvious
that micro-methods were needed, especially
for the evaluation of early generation
segregates from the breeding program, as
well as for progenitors. Over a period of four
years a series of micro-tests were developed
by Drs. Evangelina Villegas, Arnoldo Amaya
and lng. Federico Castilla Chacon. These
micro-methods combined in more advanced
generations (when larger grain samples are
available) with the conventional milling, doughhandling
and baking tests have completely
changed the quality characteristics of the
Mexican wheats. Almost all of the more recent
Mexican varieties have good milling and baking
properties. The micro-methods now used
in the CIMMYT-INIA laboratories to evaluate
individual selections and lines in early segregating
generations have been adapted in
recent years for use in laboratories of government
and private companies engaged in breeding
wheat varieties in a number of different
countries.
In the past year 17,000 lines from the Fa
and F 4 generations were evaluated for grain
type. Approximately 50% of these lines were
discarded for undesirable grain characteristics.
Micro-tests in the milling and baking quality laboratory are used to assist the breeding program in their
selection of lite materials.
73