Notification of bread wheat variety HI 1544 (Purna)

HI 1544 (Purna) is an early maturing, semi-dwarf bread wheat variety for cultivation under high fertility and timely sown 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. SO(E) 1108 (Sl. No. 5), May 8, 2008 for high fertility irrigated and timely sown conditions. HI 1544 combines early maturity, high stable yield and tolerance to terminal heat stress along with high resistance to stem and leaf rusts. It will ensure stability in wheat production and help in harvesting better yield even under deficient irrigation availability in Central Zone. It was derived from the cross HD 2402/HW 3007, through pedigree method of breeding.

HI 1544 exhibits high levels of field as well as seedling resistance to both stem and leaf rusts along with high hectoliter weight and sedimentation value, ensuring good chapati making quality. Its medium bold lustrous grain will fetch premium price in the market, thereby making wheat cultivation in Central zone more profitable. Based on 3 years testing in National trials by Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal, HI 1544 established its yield superiority over the popular bread wheat cultivar Lok-1 by giving 7.9% higher yield over it. It gave 1.4% to 7.9% higher yield over checks and its presence in highest frequency in 1^st non-significant group indicates its superiority under timely sown irrigated conditions of Central India. Under agronomical evaluation, HI 1544 gave highest yield under timely sown conditions and equally good yield under late planting, compared to checks, indicating its stable performance. It has pubescent glume, while all the other varieties released for timely and late sown planting have glabrous glume. Hence, this trait of the variety will help in DUS testing.

HI 1544 has very high field resistance to stem and leaf rusts under both natural and artificial rust screening. It showed high degree of adult plant resistance to highly virulent pathotypes 40A and 117-6 of stem rust and 12-2, 77-2, 77-5 and 104-2 of leaf rust. It showed seedling resistance to all the leaf rust pathotypes. Seedling resistance to leaf rust is highly desirable as an early disease outbreak can be quite damaging, particularly under timely sown conditions. It showed better resistance to foot rot compared to most popular T. aestivum wheat variety, Lok-1. High yield potential over years with early maturity and medium bold lustrous grains of HI 1544 will, thus, replace the old wheat cultivars like Lok-1 and GW 322, which are having high susceptibility to rusts and poor grain, respectively, and will provide better alternative to newly released variety GW 366 in improving the productivity and profitability of farmers in Central India.