Drought stress is a major abiotic stress limiting rice productivity. Forty BC₂F₅ drought QTL pyramided lines (PLs) in the background of DRR dhan 50 cultivar, each carrying combinations of qDTY2.1, qDTY3.1, qDTY1.1 and qDTY2.2 were evaluated under drought and irrigated conditions during rabi 2025. The current study aimed to evaluate genetic variability and trait associations through correlation, principal component and cluster analyses among 40 PLs derived from DRR Dhan50*2/ SAB 4 -7-5 cross to identify superior drought tolerant donors. ANOVA revealed highly significant variability across eleven agro-morphological traits under both conditions. Reproductive stage drought stress drastically reduced yield and its components. Five superior PLs (QTV 108-4, 108-3, 189-2, 128-4, and 105-1) exhibited 36–82

Rice is a highly consumed staple cereal cultivated predominantly in Asian countries, which share 90% of global rice production. Rice is a primary calorie provider for more than 3.5 billion people across the world. Preference and consumption of polished rice have increased manifold, which resulted in the loss of inherent nutrition. The prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies (Zn and Fe) are major human health challenges in the 21st century. Biofortification of staples is a sustainable approach to alleviating malnutrition. Globally, significant progress has been made in rice for enhancing grain Zn, Fe, and protein. To date, 37 biofortified Fe, Zn, Protein and Provitamin A rich rice varieties are available for commercial cultivation (16 from India and 21 from the rest of the world; Fe > 10 mg/kg, Zn > 24 mg/kg, protein > 10% in polished rice as India target while Zn > 28 mg/kg in polished rice as international target). However, understanding the micronutrient genetics, mechanisms of uptake, translocation, and bioavailability are the prime areas that need to be strengthened. The successful development of these lines through integrated-genomic technologies can accelerate deployment and scaling in future breeding programs to address the key challenges of malnutrition and hidden hunger.

BIO-FORTIFICATION OF WHEAT FOR IMPROVING NUTRITIONAL SECURITY IN CLIMATE CHANGE SCENARIO

Wheat being the second most important cereal crop after rice is consumed by two-thirds of world population in various forms. Unique food products of wheat can be prepared because of gluten proteins which are capable of forming the fully elastic dough. Wheat has the ability to reduce malnutrition and diseases caused by nutritional deficiencies and can promote nutritional security. Biofortified and quality-rich wheat varieties which are suitable for the production of various food products are bred through conventional breeding. However, various trait-linked molecular markers and biotechnological approaches are the new emerging tools to create genetic variability for the desired traits within less time which will help to produce cultivars with improved quality characteristics. This book chapter reviews how the molecular breeding and recent advances in biotechnological tools can contribute to improve the grain quality of wheat.

The demand for high quality rice among consumers has surged in recent decades due to improvements in living standards. Hence, improving grain quality without reducing grain yield is a major concern in rice breeding programmes to benefit the rice growers and consumers. Therefore, it is very crucial to study the genetic variability among the genotypes for selecting potential parents to exploit maximum heterosis and superior recombinants in terms of quality components. The present investigation was carried out at Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad during kharif 2022 with 96 rice lines to assess the genetic variability for grain quality parameters. The analysis of variance revealed a significant difference among the genotypes for all the traits studied, except volume expansion ratio, which indicates the presence of considerable amount of variation among these genotypes. Overall study on genetic variability revealed that the estimates of PCV were only slightly higher than the corresponding GCV for traits such as kernel length, kernel width, kernel length after cooking, elongation ratio, alkali spreading value, amylose content and gel consistency suggesting a lesser influence of the environment. Traits like kernel length, kernel length after cooking, alkali spreading value and gel consistency had high heritability coupled with high genetic advance which indicates the role of additive genes in the inheritance of these traits. Correlation studies revealed that, grain yield plot-1 had a significant and positive association with quality traits such as hulling, milling and head rice recovery. Therefore, simultaneous improvement for these characters is possible through selection. Binadhan 17, DR 714-1-2R, DRR Dhan 44, IR 64 and JGL 18047 were found to be the best five genotypes for grain quality parameters.

HI 1634 (Pusa Ahilya), a high yielding bread wheat variety with an average yield of 51.6 q/ha was released by Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties for Agricultural Crops, Government of India vide notification No. S.O. 500 E dated 29.01.2021 for commercial cultivation under late sown irrigated conditions of central wheat growing zone of India. HI 1634 performed superior when grown under various sowing conditions with seedling and adult plant resistance to all pathotypes of stem and leaf rusts which are virulent in India and postulated to have stem rust gene Sr31. HI 1634 had an excellent chapati quality and bread making quality along with good levels of essential micronutrients like iron and zinc content. HI 1634 will be a high yielding and terminal heat tolerant bread wheat variety ensuring better market price for farmers and will be a new option for the millers and baking industries.Â

Wheat is one of the major staple cereal food crops in India. However, most of the wheat-growing areas experience several biotic and abiotic stresses, resulting in poor quality grains and reduced yield. To ensure food security for the growing population in India, there is a compelling need to explore the untapped genetic diversity available in gene banks for the development of stress-resistant/tolerant cultivars. The improvement of any crop lies in exploring and harnessing the genetic diversity available in its genetic resources in the form of cultivated varieties, landraces, wild relatives, and related genera. A huge collection of wheat genetic resources is conserved in various gene banks across the globe. Molecular and phenotypic characterization followed by documentation of conserved genetic resources is a prerequisite for germplasm utilization in crop improvement. The National Genebank of India has an extensive and diverse collection of wheat germplasm, comprising Indian wheat landraces, primitive cultivars, breeding lines, and collection from other countries. The conserved germplasm can contribute immensely to the development of wheat cultivars with high levels of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Breeding wheat varieties that can give high yields under different stress environments has not made much headway due to high genotypes and environmental interaction, non-availability of truly resistant/tolerant germplasm, and non-availability of reliable markers linked with the QTL having a significant impact on resistance/tolerance. The development of new breeding technologies like genomic selection (GS), which takes into account the G × E interaction, will facilitate crop improvement through enhanced climate resilience, by combining biotic and abiotic stress resistance/tolerance and maximizing yield potential. In this review article, we have summarized different constraints being faced by Indian wheat-breeding programs, challenges in addressing biotic and abiotic stresses, and improving quality and nutrition. Efforts have been made to highlight the wealth of Indian wheat genetic resources available in our National Genebank and their evaluation for the identification of trait-specific germplasm. Promising genotypes to develop varieties of important targeted traits and the development of different genomics resources have also been highlighted.

Pusa Wheat 8802 (HI 8802), a durum wheat variety was released for timely sown, restricted irrigation conditions of peninsular India in 2020 by the Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties for Agricultural Crops, Government of India. It yielded significantly superior over the checks with an average yield of 29.1 q/ha and potential yield of 36.0 q/ha in national coordination trials. HI 8802 showed plasticity for different irrigation levels and yielded superior with significantly higher number of grain/spikes and thousand grain weight. It was found to be resistant to all the major wheat pests and diseases. HI 8802 is a biofortified durum wheat variety suitable for pasta production with high protein (12.8 %) and iron (40.4 ppm) content, which will boost the nutritional and economic security of peninsular zone wheat farmers.

HD 3298 is a biofortified wheat variety having high iron (43.1 ppm) and protein (12.12 %) content with tolerance to terminal heat stress. This variety has a higher yield potential of 47.4 q ha-1 under very late sown conditions. It possesses a high level of resistance against stripe rust, leaf rust, and other important diseases. It has better agronomic attributes and has better adaption to sowing time from timely to very late. This variety has a perfect Glu score (10) with excellent grain quality parameters.

A new bread wheat variety HI 1633 (Pusa Vani) has been released and notified by the Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties for Agricultural Crops, Government of India for commercial cultivation under irrigated and late sown conditions of Peninsular Zone of India. HI 1633 has average yield of 41.7 q ha-1 and showed superiority over checks. The potential yield of HI 1633 is 65.8 q ha-1 and found resistant to black and brown rusts. HI 1633 found to have excellent chapati quality (7.63), biscuit quality (7.08), high grain hardness (>80.0), test weight (80.3 kg hl-1) and sedimentation value (45.0 ml). It has high protein content (12.4 %) and presence of 5+10 subunit of Glu-D1 reflecting higher gluten strength. It has good amount of micronutrients viz., iron (41.6 ppm) and zinc (41.1 ppm) content making it rich in nutritional qualities. This variety has been recommended for irrigated late sown conditions and would contribute to increasing wheat production and alleviate the socio-economic status of farmers of Peninsular zone in India.

HI 8805 has average yield of 30.4 q/ha over the zone and showed significant superiority over the checks; with a potential yield of 35.4 q/ha. It has shown excellent and wider adaptation and significantly superior performance across different irrigation regimes over the checks with an average yield of 30.7q/ha. It showed high levels of field resistance to black and brown rusts. It has high protein content (12.8%), yellow pigment content (4.9 PPM), test weight (83.7 kg/hl), sedimentation value (42 ml), iron content (40.4 ppm), zinc content (33.9 ppm) with an overall pasta acceptability (5.7).

HI 1628 has average yield of 50.4 q/ha over the zone and showed significant superiority over the checks; with a potential yield of 65.1 q/ha. It has shown excellent and wider adaptation and significantly superior performance across different irrigation regimes over the checks with an average yield of 45.5q/ha. It showed high levels of field resistance to yellow and brown rusts. It is a good quality bread wheat genotype with excellent chapati quality (7.56), bread quality (7.64), biscuit spread factor (8.27) and high sedimentation value (56.6 ml). It has high protein content (~11 %) and protein quality (Glu score of 8/10) for high molecular weight subunits and presence of 5+10 subunit of Glu-D1 reflecting higher gluten strength in this genotype.

Farmers in northwestern and central India have been exploring to sow their wheat much earlier (October) than normal (November) to sustain productivity by escaping terminal heat stress and to utilize the available soil moisture after the harvesting of rice crop. However, current popular varieties are poorly adapted to early sowing due to the exposure of juvenile plants to the warmer temperatures in the month of October and early November. Therefore, a study was undertaken to identify wheat genotypes suited to October sowing under warmer temperatures in India. A diverse collection of 3322 bread wheat varieties and elite lines was prepared in CIMMYT, Mexico, and planted in the 3rd week of October during the crop season 2012–2013 in six locations (Ludhiana, Karnal, New Delhi, Indore, Pune and Dharwad) spread over northwestern plains zone (NWPZ) and central and Peninsular zone (CZ and PZ; designated as CPZ) of India. Agronomic traits data from the seedling stage to maturity were recorded. Results indicated substantial diversity for yield and yield-associated traits, with some lines showing indications of higher yields under October sowing. Based on agronomic performance and disease resistance, the top 48 lines (and two local checks) were identified and planted in the next crop season (2013–2014) in a replicated trial in all six locations under October sowing (third week). High yielding lines that could tolerate higher temperature in October sowing were identified for both zones; however, performance for grain yield was more promising in the NWPZ. Hence, a new trial of 30 lines was planted only in NWPZ under October sowing. Lines showing significantly superior yield over the best check and the most popular cultivars in the zone were identified. The study suggested that agronomically superior wheat varieties with early heat tolerance can be obtained that can provide yield up to 8 t/ha by planting in the third to fourth week of October.

Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops of the world, constituting a major source of food to a vast population. Many biotic factors like pests and diseases, as well as abiotic factors like drought, heat, salinity, etc., affect global wheat production to a great extent. The important diseases affecting wheat are rusts (leaf, stripe, and stem rusts), powdery mildew, smuts, bunts, Fusarium head blight, tan spot, and spot blotch. Soil bore root rots, viruses, bacterial pathogens, and nematodes also cause substantial yield reduction in wheat in some areas. The early identification of diseases, especially seed-borne diseases, diseases caused by viruses and bacteria, has proved vital in minimizing losses by taking appropriate management measures. Many conventional methods are often employed to identify wheat diseases which may be non-accurate and time-consuming. Many modern methods like immunoassays, nucleic acid-based techniques, optical sensor-based methods like thermography, fluorescence imaging (FI), hyperspectral techniques, biosensors are being increasingly used in accurate detection of wheat pathogens. Internet-based applications have enabled the farmers to identify the pest and disease problems in their fields. The use of host resistance and chemicals are the main methods of managing wheat diseases. The marker-assisted selection 68improved the chances of stacking more than one resistance gene into a single cultivar. The plant-mediated RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 technologies are being utilized to develop plants with disease resistance.

Wheat is a crop of global importance. The three rust diseases: leaf rust (Puccinia triticina), stem rust (P. graminis tritici), and stripe rust (P. striiformis tritici) are among the most serious constraints to realizing the potential wheat yields. Use of host resistance being efficacious, cost-saving, and environmentally safe, has been the preferred method of wheat rusts' management. This chapter highlights some of the important insights gained into structural and functional aspects of the genetic basis of rust resistance in wheat, and the successful use of host resistance for wheat rusts' management. Some of the important sources of rust resistance identified in wheat during recent years are described here. The value of pleiotropic adult plant resistance (APR) genes is being realized worldwide since they impart resistance to multiple wheat pathogens. The potential and limitations of using these genes are discussed. Although the losses caused by wheat rusts have been considerably reduced, recent disease outbreaks in new areas and reports of new virulences probably attributable to climate change and globalization, are posing new challenges to rust resistance breeding. Future thrusts toward realizing effective and long-lasting rust resistance in wheat like characterization and cloning, respectively, of unidentified and promising genes for rust resistance, and identification of gene-specific markers toward gene pyramiding and development of multiple resistance gene cassettes, field pathogenomic analysis to assist in the judicious use of resistance genes and planning of anticipatory breeding approaches, building up global 270cooperation for checkmating the rust pathogens, and harmonizing toward a universal system of nomenclature of wheat rust pathotypes are discussed.