Useful genetic sources of economic importance and their utlization in wheat-breeding programs in Pakistan

Wheat breeders the world over have been utilizing genetic sources to tailor the varieties to meet ever-changing requirements. In the late 1940s Dr. Borlaug at CIMMYT recognized that further increase in yield would be possible only if lodging in the existing wheat varieties could be avoided, for which he began to look for a suitable source for dwarfness. The Japanese had developed semidwarf Norin strains through a series of crosses involving a local line, Daruma; American soft red winter variety, Fultz; and American hard red winter variety, Turkey Red. One of the Norin strains, Norin-10, was used in the breeding programs, first in Italy and then in the United States where Dr. Orville Vogel developed two to three semidwarf varieties. In 1953 Dr. Vogel supplied some F2 seeds of Norin-10 Brevor to the CIMMYT program in Mexico, where this source was employed extensively in the breeding rogram; a large number of varieties were developed, some of which worth mentioning are Pitic, Penjamo, Lerma, Sonora, Inia, Tobari, and Siete Cerros.