Two new wheat and barley strains for Syrian agriculture

Damascus-Sana

The Arab Center for Studies of Arid Zones and Arid Lands "ACSAD" developed two promising high-yielding strains of wheat and barley within the framework of the joint scientific cooperation program between the center and the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform to supply Syria with new varieties of grains with higher productivity and better specifications.

The Director of the Plant Resources Department at the Center, Dr. Walid Al-Tawil, stated in a statement to SANA that the promising wheat strain, its symbol “1469”, was studied in the Ministry's agricultural research centers during the period between 2014/2019 after it underwent extensive experiments in ACSAD research centers and the results showed that This strain is suitable for dry rainfed agriculture and its average productivity despite the drought conditions is "2.2" tons / hectare compared to the "Sham 2" variety, whose average production is "1.9" tons / hectare, ie a rate of more than 12 percent.

Al-Tawil pointed out that the new strain is distinguished by its great endurance to drought conditions and gives it a higher yield of about 50 percent compared to the currently available varieties, and the protein content in its grains is 14 percent.

The promising barley strain, its symbol “1745”, according to al-Tawil, was studied and has the advantage of being highly productive, suitable for rainfed agriculture in the second settlement area, and it was tested in the Ministry's research centers during the 2015/2019 period.

 The results of the field research carried out on them indicate that the average productivity of the new breed reached 3.2 tons / hectare, while the currently cultivated varieties amounted to 5.2 tons / hectare, i.e. a rate of more than 13 percent, pointing out that the grains of this strain are characterized by a high protein ratio of 15. Percent and the weight of "1000" grains is very high, at 45 grams.

Al-Taweel explained that these two strains are currently being tested in the fields of farmers and on large areas as confirmatory experiments outside the scope of research centers.

Bushra Barhoum