Variety Development of Wheat in Turkey and the Impact of Regulations

The main aims of this study were to compile the historical wheat variety list released in wheat breeding in Turkey, to compare the wheat variety release with some selected countries and evaluate the impact of regulations on wheat research and variety development. Wheat breeding started in 1925 soon after the foundation of Republic of Turkey. First variety was released in 1928, and 617 wheat varieties were released since then. National Variety List (NVL) was published every year, however only 484 of total released varieties are currently in the NVL. 485 varieties are of bread wheat and 128 of them are durum wheat, 2 two are of Tr. monococcum, 1 is of Tr. turgidum and 1 is of Tr. spelta. As Turkey has diverse growing conditions, spring, winter and facultative bread and durum wheat varieties are grown, and varieties are released for these conditions. 316, 191 and 110 varieties of winter, spring and facultative wheat have been released, respectively. The comparisons were made for variety release among Turkey, Iran, Hungary and the UK. The highest number of varieties released per ha was in UK followed by Hungary, Turkey, Iran in 5-year-period. New regulations stimulated releasing greater number of varieties and involvement of private sector in breeding. Surveys are made to find out the varieties planted in the farmers’ field and their adoption rates. New molecular technologies, such as fingerprinting can be used to increase accuracy of the variety identification and adoption rate of any variety in such surveys