Exploiting Climate-Smart Agriculture through Breeding of Next-Generation High Yielding Genotypes of Wheat under Cropping System Perspective Yadav Rajbir, Kumar Manjeet, Gaikwad Kiran, Babu Prashanth*, Kumar Bainsla Naresh**, Ansari Rehan, Saifi Nasreen, Puri Ghanshyam, Ranjan Priya, Das Tapan ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012 **Corresponding authors, Email: bainslahau@gmail.com
*prashanthbabuh@gmail.com
Online published on 22 March, 2022. Abstract Wheat is one of the most affected cereal crops in the wake of global warming, and is facing great constraints in enhancing yields to meet the future demand and reducing cost-benefit ratio. Conservation agriculture (CA) is being promoted as adaptation option to address climate risks. However, there is a need for the integration of CA and responsive genotypes for suitable exploitation of the benefits of CA advantage and early sowing advantage; responsive genotype must harbor traits like longer duration for maturity with mild vernalization requirement, longer coleoptile length along with alternate dwarfing genes, early seedling vigor to cope up with previous crop residue, and higher biomass with strong sink. Two high-yielding wheat varieties have been developed in this direction, which are suitable for both maize-wheat and rice-wheat cropping systems. The yield gains can still be further enhanced by better understanding of plant-microbe interaction through induced epigenetic changes under the CA and integrating molecular breeding with traditional breeding. Top Key words: Conservation agriculture, climate change, genotypes, yield. Top |