IARI Regional Station, Indore.
HI 1531 (Harshita) is one of the early maturing, semi-dwarf bread wheat variety for cultivation under low input, rainfed and restricted irrigation conditions of Central Zone, developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute — Regional Station, Indore and released by the Central Sub-committee of Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties vide Notification No.S.No. 599 (E) dated 25th April, 2006. HI 1531, being nearly one week early in heading and maturity, compared to HW 2004, is likely to escape frosting and terminal drought, ensuring stability in wheat production in Central Zone. It was derived from the cross of indigenous genetic stocks, HI 1182/CPAN 1990 through pedigree method of breeding. HI 1182 is semi-dwarf variety with white and pubescent glume, whereas, CPAN 1990 is a semi-dwarf with white glabrous glume.
HI 1531, being medium early in maturity, combines semi-dwarf short stature, lodging resistance and highly stable yield with wider adaptability and high resistance to leaf and stem rusts, in addition to having amber, bold and lustrous grains, meeting the requirements of the drought prone, rainfed/limited irrigation wheat growing regions of the Central Zone. HI 1531 has white and pubescent glumes, elliptical and medium dense ear head, white auricles, semi-dwarf and profuse tillering plant type, drooping leaves and medium early in maturity. Its high hectoliter weight and sedimentation value provide additional advantage for identifying it as a good chapati making variety for profitable cultivation.
Based on three years testing in National trials by Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal, HI 1531 gave 7.2% to 23.6% higher yield under rainfed and 3.5% to 24.9% under limited irrigation conditions over durum and bread wheat check varieties, indicating its superiority under all production conditions of Central Zone. HI 1531 gave significantly higher yield over all other entries at different fertility levels (40 Kg and 60 Kg/ha) under both rainfed and one irrigation, indicating its wider adaptability under various cultivation practices. Natural and artificial rust screening data indicated that HI 1531 possesses very high level of field resistance to both stem and leaf rusts along with high level of field resistance to four highly virulent stem rust pathotypes viz., 40A, 40-1, 117-6 and 122 in the individual pathotype test nurseries.
High yield potential over years and early maturity of HI 1531 are bound to improve the wheat productivity and profitability under limited input conditions, in central belt of the country, by ensuring early arrival of best quality chapati wheat in the market.
