However, there is no major impact observed on wheat production due to rising temperature in recent past. There has been an increasing trend in wheat production since 2007- 08. Wheat production has increased from 78.51 million tonnes in 2007-2008 to 80.71 million tonnes in 2009-10 (As per 4th advance estimates, 2010).
In order to increase the production and productivity of wheat, Government of India has been implementing several crop development schemes,
In addition, heat tolerance varieties like DBW 14, DBW 16, Raj 3765, Lok 1, GW 322, etc. have been popularized on larger scale. Besides, crop advisories are issued to wheat growing farmers for adopting latest crop production/protection technologies; timely sowing; resource conservation technology including zero seed drill; irrigation at critical stages to mitigate the sudden rise in temperature. Besides, ICAR has also initiated networking projects for developing thermal and drought tolerant genotypes that are suitable for changing climatic scenario.
This information was given by Prof. K.V. Thomas, Minister of State for Agriculture in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
India
Impact of Rising Temperature in Production of Wheat
Special Correspondent - 02-12-2010 11:23 GMT-0000
New Delhi: Research project findings of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on wheat crop indicated that there is about 3 to 4% decrease in grain yield with 1ºC rise in temperature during grain filling stage. Out of 28 million hectares area under wheat in India, about 9 million hectares in north eastern plains zone, central zone and peninsular zone is prone to terminal heat stress.