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Wheat Information
Service
Number 76:1-15 (1993)
I. Review
Present
status of wheat breeding and related genetic study in
China
Q.S.Zhuang1 and Z.S.Li2
1Institute
of Crop Breeding and Cultivation, Chinese Academy of Agricultural
Sciences, China
2Institute
of Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijin, China
Summary
Recent progresses in wheat breeding and breeding-oriented genetic
studies in China since the second half of 1980's were reviewed. The
establishment of second-line sources of resistance to stripe rust and
powdery mildew, situation on scab resistance, major sources of
semidwarfhess, improvement of bread baking quality, reccurrent
selection for various purposes, germplasm development and transfer of
alien genes, and the advance of hybrid wheat development through
different approaches were discussed in some details.
Introduction
China is a big wheat producing country in the world. Its annual
wheat acreage and production in 1986-1990 amounted 29.56 million ha
and 91.35 million t, respectively, with an average yield of 3063
kg/ha. It is mainly grown in the lower and middle reaches of the
Yellow and Huai Rivers valleys, the provinces of Sichuan, Hubei,
Anhui and Jiangsu along the Yangtze River, northern parts of the
North China Plain, Helongjiang Province in the Northeast and
Xingjiang Autonomous District in the Northwest. Nearly all the
wheatlands are sown with improved cultivars developed mostly from the
so-called conventional breeding. In 1990-1992 the most popular
cultivars were as follows: Ji 5418, Lumai 14, Lu 215953, Lumai 15,
Yumai 13, Xian 8, Yumai 17, Jimai 26, Xiaoyan 6 in the Yellow and
Huai valleys; Yanginai 5, E-en 1, Mianyang 15, Chuanmai 22, Mianyang
19 in the Yangtze Valley; Jing 411 in the northern parts of North
China; New Kehan 9, Kefeng 3 in Helongjiang province; Ningchun 4 in
Inner Mongolia and Ningxia districts; and Tang 6898 in Xingjiang
district.
There are about 100 wheat breeding units in the nation which include
central, provincial and prefectural levels of agricultural institutes
and some universities. More than 1000 people are directly or
indirectly involved in this profession including a few breeders from
seed companies or private sectors. Since 1981 the major breeding
units have been organised by the Ministry of Agriculture to form a
cooperative network. During 1986-1990 the 36 members of the network
developed 91 varieties which had passed the regional tests, and 55 of
them were registered as recommended cultivars. These newly released
cultivars occupied an acreage of 4.83 million ha in 1989 harvest
year. This may give a general idea on the progress of wheat breeding
and extension work under ordinary conditions.
The breeding objectives vary with different wheat growing regions. In
general, yield has been of primary consideration. High yield
potential and good quality are aimed on the basis of yield stability.
The main approaches to improve yield potential are to increase the
kernel weight and kernel weight per spike, and at the same time, to
improve lodging resistance and harvest index by dwarfing plant
stature not at the expense of biomass production. As to yield
stability, much attention has been paid to the resistance against
biological stress especially disease resistance. Grain quality, bread
baking quality in particular, is now put on the agenda, and is deemed
as important as yield since the living standard is getting better.
This is a great challenge to the breeders because for thousands of
years wheat varieties raised by the Chinese farmers have never been
selected against bread baking quality. Moreover, adaptation to
multiple cropping systems must also be considered.
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