Registration of Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Variety Kulumsa for the Midlands of Ethiopia

Abstract

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a crucial crop in Ethiopia, and breeders test newly developed elite lines for superiority to existing cultivars to boost national productivity. Recently, commercial wheat varieties with higher genetic gain for economic traits have been released, which outperform older varieties. One such variety is Kulumsa, which has the pedigree “PFAU/MILAN/5/CHEN/ AEGILOPSSQUARROSA(TAUS)/BCN/3/VEE#7/BOW/4/PASTOR/6/2*BAVIS#1/7/BORL14” and selection history “CMSS13B00513S-099M-099NJ-099NJ-15Y-0WGY”. It was developed and released by Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center for mid to high altitudes of wheat-growing agroecology of Ethiopia. Kulumsa has higher grain yield performance than the check and has good agronomic characteristics and medium maturing type compared to the current varieties. It consistently out-yielded other tested bread wheat genotypes over two years. Compared to Wane, Danda'a, and Lemu checks, Kulumsa demonstrated significant improvement in agronomic characteristics and enhanced yield by 60%, 62%, and 68%, respectively. Wane (30.2g), Lemu (29.6g), and Danda'a (32.7g) have lower thousand kernel weights than Kulumsa (39.6g). Kulumsa had a 31%, 21%, and 34% thousand kernel weight advantage over Wane, Danda'a, and Lemu, respectively. The new variety has a better hectoliter weight than Wane, Lemu, and Danda'a by 18%, 13%, and 11%, respectively. The newly released bread wheat varieties are moderately resistant to stem rust, and yellow rust, and comparable for leaf rust disease and Septoria with the checks Wane, Danda'a, and Lemu. Kulumsa proved to be more resistant to stem yellow and leaf rust than all currently produced varieties in the mid to high-land part of wheat-growing agroecology. It offers new hope for farmers of Ethiopia and has a white grain color with good general acceptance for bread with high quality.