EFFECT OF DROUGHT STRESS ON WHEAT AND DROUGHT BREEDING STATUS FOR IT IN NEPAL WITH THE WAY FORWARD: A REVIEW

Author:
Pragyan Bhattarai, Manisha Pokhrel, Shrijana Poudel, Saleena Neupane, Rashmita Mainali, Ganesh Kharel

Doi: 10.26480/rfna.01.2022.24.28

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Wheat is the third most important crop in Nepal that is grown in a dominant rice wheat cropping pattern. The productivity of wheat is at a standstill for the past decade primarily due to abiotic stress like drought and high temperature. Changing climate pattern and high vulnerability of Southeast Asian countries in the future demands extensive work under plant breeding to cope with the challenges. Wheat requires about 266.8-500mm of water for normal attainable yield, but prolonged drought has a serious effect on photosynthesis as it hampers the carbondioxide assimilation rate. It also has a pronounced effect in the reproductive and grain filling period of the wheat. This results in the reduction of yield, and this is expected to increase in the future because of climate change. Varieties like Gautam and Vijay have been reported to show positive drought adaptive traits. Vast resources of biodiversity and landraces have been underutilized in Nepal which can be useful when coupled with advanced biotechnological tools to produce drought adaptive crop.

Pages 24-28
Year 2022
Issue 1
Volume 3