Afghanistan grows wheat at about 2.5 million ha, about 45% of which is irrigated. The country is not wheat sufficient and has been importing to meet domestic needs. Yellow rust is the most important disease of wheat in Afghanistan. Country has been able to manage wheat rusts mainly by having a survey surveillance system in place and by releasing resistant varieties. A total of 30 wheat varieties released during last two decades were screened for rust resistance under natural epiphytotic conditions. The rust reaction observed on two dates at one week interval revealed very fast increase in yellow rust infection. A large number of varieties e.g., Gul-96, Pamir-94, Ghori-96, HD2285 etc., were found to have very high yellow rust scores warranting their removal from seed chain.
Afghanistan grows maize in about 0.15 m ha with an annual production hovering around 300,000 tonnes. The country does not have any officially released commercial maize hybrid and relies only on open pollinated varieties for cultivating maize. The countries in region enjoy much higher productivity levels ranging from 3.5 to 5.00 tonnes per ha compared to 2.2 tonnes per ha of Afghanistan. Several maize hybrids were introduced from CIMMYT to test them for adaptation and yielding ability in Afghanistan for the purpose of releasing them in the country. The three public sector maize hybrids described in this communication were tested at several locations viz., Nangarhar province, Kabul, Baghlan and Helmand in Afghanistan during 2012 to 2014 crop seasons. The hybrids/inbreds bred by CIMMYT were tested against the currently grown open pollinated (OP) varieties and they yielded on an average 31 to 38% higher than the currently popular open pollinated maize varieties. The hybrids were released for commercial cultivation in 2014.
Afghanistan grows wheat on about 2.5 million hectares with an average annual production of about five million tonnes. The local research and development efforts make use of country wide research results to recommend varieties and other technologies. Afghanistan has wide ranging climatic variability and its wheat acreage therefore needs to be delineated into wheat climatic zones. A set of 10 different types of wheat varieties were scored for average number of days to 50% flowering (ADF) at 10 locations to delineate Afghan wheat acreage into homogeneous wheat climatic zones based on ADF values. The results obtained hinted at creating eastern, northern, south western and a highland zone for conducting research and recommending wheat technologies.
New high yielding and disease resistant wheat genotypes were introduced in 2008-09 crop season through 4 th Elite Bread Wheat yield Trial (EBYT) as well as 2 nd Stem Rust Resistance Screening Nursery (STEMRRSN). One genotype from EBYT performed 15% higher than commercial variety, Mazar 99 during five years of testing at over eight locations in Afghanistan and was therefore recommended for release for commercial cultivation. Another genotype, Wafer-15 from STEMRRSN showed superior performance (11 to 33% higher yield) than commercial varieties during three years of testing at six locations in Afghanistan and was therefore released in 2015 for commercial cultivation. Both varieties were found resistant to prevalent rust diseases as well as to Ug99 race of stem rust.
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