The importance of genetic reserves in the creation of new wheat varieties
Authors: Khudayev Faiq , Abdullaev A. , Hajiyeva S. , Valiyeva S. 
Published: November 2024

One of the important ﬁelds of agriculture is grain growing, especially wheat. Is one of the important crops in Azerbaijan, as in many countries, which has a special weight in en-suring food security. The development of grain growing is always in the center of attention of our state. According to the 2nd strategic goals of «Increasing the production potential of agricultural products along the value chain» and to the 4th strategic goals of «Development of the market of production tools in the ﬁeld of agriculture and improvement of provision of services” established in the «Strategic Roadmap for the production and processing of agri-cultural products in the Republic of Azerbaijan» approved by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated December 6, 2016 issues such as increasing the production volume of bread and durum wheat for food purposes without expanding the existing planting areas and eliminating dependence on imports, strengthening and promoting the potential of local seed production have been reﬂected. This shows that grain-growing is one of the main strategic areas in the country's economy in ensuring the national food security of Azerba-ijan. Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated July 19, 2022 «On a num-ber of measures to increase the level of self-suﬃciency with food wheat» further stimulated the implementation of research in the direction of breeding for the purpose of ensuring food security in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Many of the valuable examples of local varieties created in Azerbaijan during a long historical period have been lost or are in danger of being lost due to being suppressed by mo-dern breeding varieties. Targeted research should be continued to eliminate this threat. As the relief and climate conditions of Azerbaijan are diﬀerent, so are the soils. Such diversity of natural and geographical conditions has created favorable conditions for the rich-ness of both wild and cultivated ﬂora, including the wheat plant. Approximately 4,500 speci-es of higher plants have been registered in Azerbaijan, which make up 66% of the Caucasian ﬂora, of which 25 species belong to the cereal family. In 2020-2021, 30,368 germplasms of cereals, legumes and other crops were studied at the Research Institute of Crop Husbandry. The correct breeding of the starting material and their purposeful involvement in hy-bridization is the basis for the creation of new high-yielding and high-quality varieties in the future. The current global climate change is causing a decrease in the yield of existing vari-eties. In order to protect cultivated plants, it is relevant to create new varieties and hybrids of high-yielding, medium-sized, quick-maturing bread and durum wheat with high grain quality resistant to stress factors. The main goal of the research work is the selection of starting material for the creation of new wheat varieties with high grain yield and quality indicators, resistant to abiotic and biotic stress factors in diﬀerent soil and climate conditions of our republic.