Evolution of varieties and development of production technology in Egypt wheat: A review

Abstract

Wheat was the first crop grown in Egypt, and it remains highly important. Egypt is the largest wheat importer in the world and consumes an extensive amount of bread. It is imperative for wheat scientists to decrease the large gap between production and consumption. Wheat yields in Egypt increased 5.8-fold (6.7 billion kg) between 1961 and 2017 due to variety improvement and the use of better planting methods such as the raised bed method, ideal sowing date, surge flow irrigation and farm irrigation systems, laser levelling, fertilizers, and intercropping with raised beds. In this paper, the development of wheat production techniques and variety evolution over more than five decades in Egypt have been analyzed. In particular, we have focused on the technologies, cultural practices and causes for per unit area yield increase. The main purpose was to study the issues that have arisen during wheat production and to make recommendations for smart agricultural practices. In 1981, the yield was 3 300 kg ha -1 and through the improvement of varieties, expansion of agricultural land and the adoption of modern agricultural techniques yield reached 6 500 kg ha -1 by 2017. The production growth rate was 4.1% annually, and the total grain yield increased 4.3-fold, from 1.9 billion kg in 1981 to about 8.1 billion kg in 2017. The use of new improved varieties, new cultivation techniques, and modern irrigation techniques contributed to 97.0% of the increase in yield per unit area and 1.5% of the increase in yield was due to planting area expansion. Therefore, the increase in total yield mainly depended on the increase in yield per unit area. Wheat production in Egypt has been improved through the development of breeding and cultivation techniques. The use of these new techniques, the popularization of new high-quality seed varieties, and the use of the raised bed method instead of the old method of planting in basins have made the largest contributions to increased yield. In the future, wheat yield could be further increased by using the tridimensional uniform sowing mode and the development of wheat varieties that are resistant to rusts, deficit irrigation, and abiotic stress, that are highly adaptable to mechanized operation and have high yields. Based on our analysis, we propose the main technical

Biodiversity of Pathogenic and Toxigenic Seed-Borne Mycoflora of Wheat in Egypt and Their Correlations with Weather Variables

“…The Egyptian hybrid programs have continued to release new cultivars with improved agronomic characteristics such as salinity tolerance, short plant height, high yield, water deficit resistance, early maturity, and more tillers. Of all wheat pathogenic fungi, the released cultivars by the Egyptian breeders up to date have been evaluated only for their resistance to rusts due to their severe threat to the wheat crop in Egypt [33]. For each wheat-growing governorate, specific wheat cultivars have been recommended by the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation depending on the cultivar's suitability to the climatic conditions in a given governorate in order to achieve the highest wheat productivity per unit area.…”

Impact of Preceding Crop, Sowing Methods and Nano-Fertilizer (Amino mineral) on Bread Wheat Production and Quality in Toshka Region, Egypt

“…In both seasons, seeding wheat by drilling method (SM 1 ) gave the greatest increase for all studied growth traits. It might be attributed to drilling is an advisable planting method due to uniform seed distribution in the field and seeding at desired depth which ensures higher emergence and good subsequent crop growth as well as increases the utilization efficiency of light, water, fertilizer and higher root growth, which lead to enhance plant growth (Tao et al, 2017;Abdelmageed et al, 2019). Tamirat & Mekides (2020) indicated that the drilling planting method has able a good leaf length, the highest mean values of leaf number and is a better way to maximize the productivity of wheat.…”

“…So, the farmer selects the proper method depending on soil type and the preceding crop which leads to facilitating plants to utilize the land, and optimum plant population in the field, and good subsequent crop growth (Singh & Sharma, 2019;Angelique et al, 2020). In Egypt, most farmers prefer the broadcasting method because it saves time, whereas progressive farmers and research scientists use the drilling sowing method due to uniform seed distribution in the field and sowing at desired depth which results in higher germination, to save the labor in controlling weeds and increases the utilization efficiency of light, water, fertilizer and other resources (Tao et al, 2017), but only 27% of the farmers currently practice drill sowing (Abdelmageed et al, 2019).…”

Improving Productivity of Some Bread Wheat Cultivars under Water Deficit Stress Using Endophytic Bacillus sp. NGB-WhE3

“…In Egypt, the total area cultivated with wheat is 1.4 million ha, with a yield of 9 million tons (FAO, 2021). However, there is still a big gap, (~50%) between production and consumption (Abdelmageed et al, 2019). Egyptian land available for new agricultural expansion projects is generally categorized as semiarid land.…”