Climate Chambers to Reduce Wheat Breeding Time from 15 Years to 5 Years

The "Development Agencies Fight Against Kovid-19 and Resilience" program of the Ministry of Industry and Technology Development Agencies General Directorate started to bear fruit. Thanks to the 3 climate chambers established at the GAP International Agricultural Research and Training Center (GAP UTAEM), free from all adverse conditions, where humidity, temperature and light can be adjusted, new seed varieties that will be obtained in a short time will contribute to Turkish agriculture. Thanks to the "climate chambers" established in the GAP UTAEM campus, which continues its activities in Diyarbakır, the breeding period of wheat will decrease from 15 to 5 years. The "Establishment of a Sustainable Epidemic Management System in Seed Production" project was prepared by GAP UTAEM within the scope of the "Development Agencies Fight Against Kovid-19 and Resilience" program of the General Directorate of Development Agencies of the Ministry of Industry and Technology. In line with the project, 3 climate chambers were created in GAP UTAEM for the rapid breeding of agricultural seeds and the development of new varieties. With the financial support of our agency, rehabilitation works are carried out in the presence of experts in the climate rooms, which are free from all adverse conditions and where humidity, light and temperature can be adjusted. In this way, the improvement works carried out in 15 years according to the wheat variety in field conditions will now be concluded in 5 years. Plants grown in rooms under 21 hours of LED light and 25 degrees Celsius light period, 3 hours of darkness and 18 degrees Celsius can be harvested in the range of 50 to 80 days.
 

Our Agency's Secretary General, Dr. Hasan Maral said that as an agency, they have been supporting many projects for the economic and social development of Diyarbakır and Şanlıurfa since 2009. Maral, who stated that the agency provided both technical and practical project support in many areas, from improving the industrial infrastructure and reproducing the local products with potential in the region, through the financial support programs carried out by the agency, and stated that the aforementioned climate chambers are also an application-oriented project.