Peer review

Accepted article

Wheat demand in Bangladesh has increased significantly in recent years, becoming the second major staple cereal after rice. Domestic production of wheat accounts for only 16% of domestic use. More than 30 wheat varieties have been released in the past 30 years by the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI). In the last 10 years alone, nine varieties with improved yield and disease resistance have been released. Bangladesh and the BWMRI lack the regulatory framework and infrastructure to accurately track the rate of adoption of these new releases. To determine the adoption of these varieties across the country, DNA fingerprinting of wheat samples was conducted across the six wheat growing regions in Bangladesh during the 2018–19 cropping season. A reference library was established to compare and identify the wheat samples collected from farmers’ fields. Wheat grain samples collected from the fields and breeders’ lines were genotyped using DArTseq-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Of the 1,791 samples collected from farmers’ fields, 68% were identified as varieties released after 2000 and 32% matched with older varieties. Among the varieties grown, BARI Gom 25 represented 29% of the collected samples followed by 23% of BARI Gom 24 and 16% of BARI Gom 26. These three most common varieties were well distributed across the six regions and have broad adoption.

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