Area under wheat variety, PBW 550 to increase this year

Ludhiana, Oct 20 (UNI) The area under the latest wheat variety PBW 550 is likely to go up in the North West plains this year as it not only gave a good yield but it was accepted in the market because of its good chapatti quality characterstics.

It is a high yielding, rust resistance variety with good grain quality and early maturity. If matures early and gives 6-8 per cent higher yield than the old varieties PBW 502 and PBW 343 The PBW 550 developed at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) was released by the Punjab State Seed Sub-Committee in August 2007 for general cultivation in Punjab. The acreage under this variety is likely to go up this year as it produced a good yield in the last wheat season.

During the 46th All India Wheat Research Workers meet last year, PBW 550 was identified as a superior genotype for cultivation under irrigated timely sown conditions of the entire North Western Plains Zone (NWPZ) of India comprising Punjab, Haryana, west Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, pasts of Rajasthan, Terai region of Uttarakhand, the Paonta Valley and Una district of Himachal Pradesh. It was released for cultivations in the entire NWPZ zone in November last year and produced good results.

PBW 550 is a double dwarf variety with an average plant height of about 86 cm. In comparison with PBW 502 and PBW 343, it is slightly shorter in height. Its grains are bold, amber, hard and lustrous.

PBW 550 takes about 146 days to mature under Punjab conditions and is less prone to terminal heat stress. In the yield trials conducted in North Western plains, PBW 550 took about 86 days (range 69-105 days) from seeding to heading and 135 days (116-160 days) for maturity seed to seed.

The recommended sowing time for PBW 550 is from 1st week of November to the 4th week of November.

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