A new durum (Triticum durum Desf.) wheat variety MACS 3949 developed for rich nutritional pasta quality with high zinc and iron

MACS 3949 is a durum wheat variety developed at Agharkar Research Institute, Pune derived through selection method from 39th IDYN (CIMMYT). The variety was identified by 55th All India Wheat and Barley workshop CCS HAU, Hissar and subsequently notified by Central Sub Committee on Crop Standards, India. On the basis of mean of three years (2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16) data from All India coordinated experiment, grain yield of MACS 3949 (43.98 q/ha) was higher to all the checks Viz., NIDW 295 (39.70 q/ha) and UAS 428 (41.78 q/ha). Overall, MACS 3949 showed a yield advantage of about 10.78 % over NIDW 295 and 5.24 % over UAS 428. The important morphological traits of the variety described as, semi dwarf with average plant height around 81 (78-83) cm, medium sized strong waxy semi erect green leaves, parallel dense spikes with long spreading awns. Grains were amber colored, bold lustrous, semi hard, elliptical in shape with short brush, soft threshing at maturity and1000-grain weight was about 47 (42-53) gm. The variety has shown resistance to leaf rusts, in particularly the seedling resistance to race 77-complex of leaf rust, stem rust, leaf blight, powdery mildew, flag smut and karnal bunt under both natural and artificial screening conditions. It has high protein content (12.9 %), better nutritional quality (Zinc 40.6 ppm, Iron 38.6 ppm) with good milling quality (Test weight 81.4 kg/hl) and best cooking quality for pasta product having highest overall acceptability 7.25. The newly developed durum wheat variety MACS 3949 released for cultivation at Peninsular Zone in India, which is having rich source of nutritional pasta quality with high zinc and iron content will be a promising one for future potential of export at international market.