the Symposium on Wheats for More Tropical Environments - cimmyt

development projects. Wheatcampaigns at <strong>the</strong> village level wouldencourage fanners to grow and learnhow to prepare wheat for food. A smallmill and bakery could first beestablished. Then. with productionexperience and a larger number offanners involved. <strong>the</strong> point might bereached when <strong>the</strong>re would be enoughlocally produced wheat to supply <strong>the</strong>modern mills in Bangkok.Potential Wheat AreaWheat can be grown in three situations.on 1) <strong>the</strong> rainfed highlands. 2) <strong>the</strong>uplands. ei<strong>the</strong>r rainfed or withirrigation. and 3) <strong>the</strong> lowlands afterrice. ei<strong>the</strong>r rainfed or with irrigation.A thorough survey of potential wheatarea has not yet been made. One recentstudy estimated that about 117.000hectares of lowland rice soU in ChiangRat province are suitable for wheatfanning. The soUs are loamy. somewhatacid. moderately light in texture andmore than 150 centimeters deep. Apreliminary crop water use studysuggests an available soU-watercapacity of 250 mm in an area where<strong>the</strong> 75 mm of rainfall nonnally reqUiredfor reliable rainfed crop production canbe expected in <strong>the</strong> month of October.Research and DevelopmentWheat research commenced in <strong>the</strong>early 19608 as a project of <strong>the</strong> Ministryof Interior. From that program. <strong>the</strong> twocurrently available varieties. INIA 66and Sonora 64. were selected. During<strong>the</strong> 19708. o<strong>the</strong>r organizations becameinvolved and. in 1979. <strong>the</strong> first NationalWheat Workshop was held to exchangedata and to coordinate research. Theworkshop is now an annual event.There are three separate entitiesconducting breeding programs inThailand:• The Department of Agriculture.based at Samoeng. with <strong>the</strong> objectiveof breeding and selecting wheats for<strong>the</strong> cooler medium and higheraltitudes;• Chiang Mal University. selecting for<strong>the</strong> areas with about 300 metersaltitude. and• Kasetsart University. selecting for<strong>the</strong> hot. dry nor<strong>the</strong>ast region ofThaUand.These three programs submit entries to<strong>the</strong> Thailand Observation Nursery and<strong>the</strong> Thailand Yield Nursery. which aregrown at many sites throughout <strong>the</strong>country. The lines under evaluation arelargely selections from various CIMMYTand ICARDA nurseries. although anumber have been derived from locallymade crosses.Progress is being made in <strong>the</strong> selectionof wheats which outperfonn currentvarieties (Table 1). Agronomic trialshave been carried out by <strong>the</strong> threeorganizations over <strong>the</strong> past four years.and agronomic recommendations havebeen tentatively fonnulated.Table 1. Mean yields of <strong>the</strong> five bestperforminglines in <strong>the</strong> Thailand YieldNursery, 1984NameipedigrHUP262QuimoriPi-Frond x Pi-Mazoe/Mexipak,PK2858-7a-3a·3a-OaBuckbuck''S'', CM31678-R-4Y­2M-15Y·2M·1 Y -OMBluebird-eN067 x INIA-Soty,CM 1502·8M-3Y·3M·2Y-OMINIA66Sonora 64Mean yield(kg/ha)2266225722512124210219791838