PAU Regional Research Station Ballowal Saunkhri Organised Field Day on late sown wheat variety PBW 658 in NICRA village Bhawanipur under National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project of All India Coordinated research Project for Dry Land Agriculture (AICRPDA). The aim of the field day was to demonstrate performance of late sown variety of wheat PBW 658 as contingent crop to fit in the different cropping systems.

On this occasion, Dr. Manmohanjit Singh, Director and Chief Scientist, AICRPDA interacted with the farmers to get their feedback on the performance of various contingent crop management strategies in the changing climatic scenario. He advised the farmers to choose crops and varieties based on the prevailing climatic conditions. He motivated the farmers to adopt the preparatory and real time contingent plans developed by the AICRPDA centre, Ballowal Saunkhri. Dr. Anil Khokhar, incharge NICRA scheme gave a brief account of the various situations faced by the farmers due to aberrant weather conditions and how to overcome these challenges. He paid emphasis on the cultivation of late sown variety of wheat PBW 658. He highlighted that this variety is suitable when timely sowing of wheat is not possible due to low soil moisture under rainfed conditions or when toria/pea is taken after maize or when ash gourd fields (petha) are vacated late due to delay in lifting of ash gourd by traders.

The team of AICRPDA scientists from RRS Ballowal Saunkhri comprising of Dr. Manmohanjit Singh, Dr Anil Khokhar, Er Abrar Yousuf and Dr Parminder Singh Sandhu alongwith farmers from NICRA villages Achalpur, Nainwan and Bhawanipur visited the farmer fields where the late sown variety of wheat PBW 658 was sown in different situations.