New wheat variety doubles yield for farmers in Maharashtra village
15 Oct 2020
A new wheat variety called MACS 6478, developed by scientists at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has doubled the crop yield for farmers in Karanjkhop, a village in Maharashtra, says a report by the ministry of science and technology..
The farmers of the village in Koregaon tehsil of Satara district in Maharashtra are now reported to be getting a yield of 45-60 quintal per hectare with the new variety against earlier average yield of 25-30 quintal per hectare from the earlier cultivate Lok 1, HD 2189 and other old varieties.
The newly developed common wheat or bread wheat, also called high yielding Aestivum, matures in 110 days and is resistant to most races of leaf and stem rust. The amber colored medium sized grain contains 14 per cent protein, 44.1 ppm zinc and 42.8 ppm iron, which is higher than other cultivated varieties.
A research paper on this variety has been published in ‘International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences’.
The chapati quality of flour of this wheat is excellent, having score of 8.05 with good bread quality scoring 6.93. Maharashtra state agency for seed multiplication, ‘Mahabeej’, is carrying out certified seed production of MACS 6478 for use by farmers.
With the efforts of a former seed certification officer and support from ARI staff, so far 10 farmers of the village have cultivated this variety on fourteen acres of land. Farmers of Karanjkhop have planned to establish a company for further seed production and other agricultural produce.
"We needed one spark to motivate us and that is provided by ARI wheat variety MACS 6478. Now, we will never look back," Ramesh Jadhav, a farmer, who witnessed all this change said.