ACSAD Enters New Varieties of Wheat with High Productivity

Damascus- The Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD) has developed tens of varieties of soft and hard wheat. These new varieties have been registered and approved in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Yemen and Libya.

These varieties have contributed to increased production of the crop, which is considered the basis of food security in the Arab countries, where productivity increase reached more than 15 percent worth more than $ 100 million a year, as confirmed by the Director General of ACSAD, Dr. Rafiq Ali Saleh.

Dr. Saleh pointed out in a statement issued by the Center on Tuesday that the Ministry of Agriculture in Sudan recently adopted the hard wheat category “ACSAD 1315” and was officially registered for agriculture as “wedalbar,” indicating that the results of field trials in the Sudanese Agricultural Research Commission and extensive experiments carried out in the fields of farmers for several years confirmed the superiority of this new breed.

He pointed out that, despite the high temperature in Sudan, the average productivity of this type reached 3 tons per hectare and some farmers who participated in the work of testing this type reached 3.5 tons per hectare, equivalent to 20 percent increase in production from cultivated traditional varieties.

The new variety, according to Dr. Saleh, is characterized by its resistance to diseases, especially wheat rusts, in addition to its high technological specifications and high specific weight of grain. He pointed out that laboratory experiments showed that the protein content reached 15%, which makes it perfect for the industry of pasta and bread.

It is worth mentioning that the “ACSAD” provided the Sudanese Ministry of Agriculture in a quantity of 1 ton of seed of this breed during the test periods and was included in the program of proliferation of seed in the state of Wad Madani.

Sh. Kh.