Gwalior

Name of the Centre: Wheat Improvement Project, Gwalior

Year of Start: 1 April 1987

Universities/Department: Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwa   Vidyalaya, (RVSKVV), College of Agriculture, Gwalior, MP

Importance of centre and mandate

Gwalior Centre was established as a testing sub-centre under JNKVV in Madhya Pradesh. It is placed at an altitude of 211.52 MSL, 26° 13’ N latitude and 78° 14’ E longitude.

It is situated in grid zone, comprising Gwalior, Bhind, Morena, Sheopur-Kala, Shivpuri, Guna and Ashok nagar districts and agro climatic zone no. VI, Kymoreplataue and satpura hills, Bajra-Jowar crop zone.

It has a humid sub-tropical climate with hot summers from late March to early July, the humid monsoon season from late June to early October and a cool dry winter from early November to late February. Summer starts from late March and it is the hottest in India.

The highest recorded temperature is 48°C and the lowest happens to be -1 °C. Gwalior gets 970 mm (39 in) of precipitation every year, most of which is received from late June to early October. Winter in Gwalior starts in late October, with daily temperatures averaging in the 14-16 °C range, having mostly dry and sunny conditions. January is the coldest month with average lows in the 5-7 °C range and occasional cold snaps that fall to close to freezing.

The soil is low in available nitrogen, medium in phosphorus and high in potash with pH of 8.5.

In India, spring type wheat is grown during winter season. In Madhya Pradesh, wheat is grown in all most of all agro-climatic zones under different situations like fully irrigation, restricted irrigation as well as rain-fed condition.

Increasing area under newly high yielding, multiple disease resistant varieties by replacing old ruling varieties along with introducing improved package of practices may boost up the production and productivity in MP.

 Another quantum jump in wheat production is almost necessary not only to meet the ever increasing food requirement for domestic consumption, for earning foreign exchange also. 

Mandate

1. The mandate of this Centre is to conduct the coordinated trials of genetic advances and production technology verification in north central zone of MP.
2. Development of high yielding wheat variety with heat tolerance, water use efficiencies and rust resistance suitable for different agronomic situations in order to bring more area under wheat cultivation in Madhya Pradesh.
3. Development of early maturing varieties for multiple cropping sequences to increase the overall productivity.
4. Developing limited irrigation, low-input production technology to improve profitability of wheat cultivation in central zone.
5. Production of nucleus and breeder seed of newly developed wheat varieties for central zone.

Scientist Details