Wheat breeding strategies and cultivation technologies in Siberia

Summary

The southern part of western Siberia, including the territory of Altai, is a large grain producing area. Soil and climatic conditions of the region, which generally meet plant requirements in favourable years, produce bread and durum wheat yields of unique quality. Among cropping practices, the most important are the following: management of landscape to facilitate even moisture distribution; prevention of erosion and soil degradation; appropriate fertiliser application; informed use of herbicides and pesticides; and using modern machinery for crop cultivation. Concurrently, the breeding process should be developed to build up resistance and adaptability to biotic and abiotic stresses of high yielding varieties. The success of this process may be ensured by using new sources of stress resistance. Also, genetic diversity should be expanded by recombinant selection, introgressive hybridisation, and biotechnological methods as well as substitution and translocation of chromosomes and introduction of concrete genes. In this case it is very important to conserve major gene blocks of ‘basic’ varieties for the given region. Special attention in harsh continental conditions should be paid to provo-cational backgrounds, artificial climate chambers, and methods of earlier diagnosis of stress-resistance. Production of ecologically pure seed can also be promoted by using research based methods of fertiliser and chemical application.