Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, February 21:

Wheat recorded the highest productivity and highest amount of production last year in the history of wheat cultivation in Nepal, according to Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC).

According to a NARC report , productivity of wheat achieved a significant growth last year, reaching to 2.087 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) from the previous year’s 2.009 t/ha.

A total of 1,387,191 metric tonnes of wheat was produced in Nepal in the fiscal year 2004-2005. It was 3.2 per cent more than that of the previous year’s production.

Area under wheat crop, however, fell down last year to 664,589 hectares, 0.66 per cent less than in the previous year, according to Bhola Mansingh Basnet, chief of communication, publication and documentation division of the council. During the 44 years of wheat research in Nepal, NARC claimed it has developed and released 28 improved varieties of wheat for cultivation. The recent in the series is a new variety called Gautam, which NARC has recommended for cultivation.

“Some varieties developed here are in the pipeline for recommendation in Bangladesh as well,” said G Ferrara, South Asian coordinator of the International Centre for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT), addressing a three-day workshop on National Winter Crops that began today.

Wheat, barley, oilseed crops, grain legumes, sugarcane, naked barley and potato are the major winter crops.

According to the report, barley and grain legumes followed wheat in terms of area coverage in Nepal during last winter. Barley was cultivated in 27,467 hectares of land with total production being 28,151 tonnes and productivity being 1.025 t/ha last year. Similarly, grain legumes were cultivated in 314,130 hectares of land with their production being 262,300 tonnes and productivity being 0.835 t/ha.

At the workshop, experts are scheduled to present 80 working papers on different winter crops. The workshop is aimed at reviewing breeding and varietal improvement, hybridisation, participatory technology development, nutrition management, agroclimatology and other aspects of winter crops in Nepal.