Domestic wheat varieties offer some advantages over imported ones, according to producers

Chisinau, April 15 / MOLDPRES /- An agricultural producer in our country has been cultivating wheat of local varieties for many years and says that they offer a number of important advantages over imported ones, such as drought and frost resistance, as well as the purchase price. It is about Nicanor Buzovoi, the director of a company from Pârliţa village, Ungheni district, and the head of the Cereal Producers Association.

Nicanor Buzovoi claims that “in terms of productivity, even if it yields little to imported seeds, the local varieties can still offer an economic advantage. It generally depends on the timely completion of the works and on full compliance with the agro-technological recommendations ”.

Given that last autumn there were no rains and it was sown in dry soil, at least on the lands of the enterprise he runs, the wheat has already sprouted in spring, and is currently in the twinning stage. Because of this, the harvest could be reduced by 10-20 percent, but it depends on several factors, including the previous crop, the quality of the soil, and could even be offset by the agro-meteorological conditions.

"The local varieties cope, they are good, and the purchase price of the seed material is more convenient. I use not only wheat seeds, but also local corn. We also had 7.5 tons per hectare of wheat, and last year we harvested 11 tons of grain per hectare for corn ", he said.

In Pârlița, the wheat varieties obtained by the Research Institute for Field Crops "Selecția" have been cultivated since 1953, and in this agricultural season over 400 hectares of land have been sown.

ICCC Selection has been conducting a comparative analysis for five years of wheat varieties of local origin and from neighboring regions, but also from European countries. It showed that, in favorable years, some imported varieties have a high production potential, and in the dry ones, as they are often in our country, they significantly lose their productivity compared to the domestic ones, which offers a higher degree of stability.

On the experimental lots of the institute, the local varieties exceeded the productivity level of those from abroad. They are also better adapted to the environmental conditions of our country, especially to climate change, which is confirmed in the agricultural season of 2020, which was dry, but also in 2021, with excess humidity.

During its almost 80 years of existence, ICCC Selection has created more than 370 varieties and hybrids of different crops - wheat and barley in autumn and spring, alfalfa, sunflower, soybeans, beans, peas, peas , sugar beet.