Wheat Varieties in India 2026

Last updated: 22 September 2026

> Quick Answer: India grows three wheat species and has notified 546 varieties since 1964-65, on ICAR-IIWBR's count. Bread wheat covers more than 96 percent of the area, durum and dicoccum the rest. The names on an atta pack, sharbati and lokwan, are regional grades rather than entries on that list.

The 546 is a cumulative count, not a shopping list. ICAR-IIWBR's Research Bulletin 51 splits it into 462 bread wheat, 73 durum, 7 dicoccum and 4 triticale, notified up to June 2023 across five zones. A variety bred for the north western plains, where the crop runs 140 to 150 days, is not what ripens in Maharashtra in 90.

Almost none of it reaches a buyer by name. Indian atta sells as a brand line or a regional grade, and the variety in the sack is a miller's decision on price, hardness and gluten strength. So the question in a shop is not which variety is best, but which measurable trait you are paying for.

Why does India's wheat variety list change every few seasons?

Rust catches up. PBW 343 was released for the north western plains in 1995 and by 2002-03 occupied more than 90 percent of Punjab's wheat area and about 7 million hectares of the Indo-Gangetic Plains. A 2022 PLOS ONE paper records it, PBW 621 and HD 2967 as all now highly susceptible to stripe rust.

Their resistance fell to the pathotypes 110S119 and 238S119, and yield ceilings move with the pathogens. IIWBR's bulletin describes the plains in generations. Varieties released up to 2012 reached about 49.4 quintals a hectare. HD 2967, WH 1105, HD 3086 and DBW 88, released up to 2017, took it to 53.10. DBW 303, notified in January 2021, averages 81.2.

So any variety list older than two or three seasons describes a field that has moved on. Every figure below carries its notification date.

What separates bread wheat, durum and dicoccum in the kitchen?

Grain hardness, and what hardness does to dough. Bread wheat, Triticum aestivum, grows on more than 96 percent of India's wheat area and is the grain behind nearly all atta. Durum, T. durum, and dicoccum, T. dicoccum, share the other 4 percent, durum mainly in the central and peninsular zones and dicoccum only in the peninsular.

Durum grain is harder and more vitreous, so it mills to coarse semolina rather than fine flour, which is why suji, rava and pasta come from it. ICAR calls it kathia wheat in central India. The split shows in the paperwork: durum notifications publish a yellow pigment figure and a pasta acceptability score, and bread wheat records carry neither.

Dicoccum is the smallest by far, 7 varieties in sixty years against 462 bread wheat, all in the peninsular zone. Our guide to how the older Indian wheats differ covers that end of it.

Which wheat varieties cover the most Indian acreage now?

HD 2967 is still the biggest single name. ICAR describes it as the variety with the maximum area coverage ever recorded under one name and credits it with 50 percent of total wheat production in India. It is also one of the cultivars that stripe rust paper lists as no longer resistant to it.

The replacements come mostly out of IIWBR Karnal: DBW 187 (Karan Vandana) in January 2020 with 43.1 ppm iron, DBW 303 (Karan Vaishnavi) in January 2021, DBW 327 and DBW 332 in December 2021, and DBW 370, 371 and 372 in March 2023. IARI's HD 3086 and HD 3226 hold large areas too.

Checked on 22 September 2026, the IIWBR seed portal also lists DBW 443 and 445 for the central zone, and DDW 47, 48 and 55 as its durum entries. Those yields are trial averages.

Are sharbati and lokwan actually wheat varieties?

Not in the sense ICAR uses the word. Sharbati is a regional designation from Madhya Pradesh. The Sehore district administration describes it growing on black and alluvial soil, calls it the golden grain for its colour and heft, and reports 40,390 hectares sown for 109,053 tonnes a year there.

The confusion is older than the marketing. A variety called Sharbati Sonora was notified for almost every zone in 1969, and it is not what a sharbati pack means today. Lokwan traces to Lok 1, bred at Lokbharti Gramvidyapith in Gujarat, which ICAR's coordinated project records as the central zone's most preferred variety until 2005. The retail name has outlived the variety by two decades.

Sona Moti sits in the same bracket, bought by name rather than notification number. We cover what Sona Moti wheat is and what its label publishes separately.

What do protein, gluten strength and grain hardness change in atta?

They decide what a flour can make, not how good it is. Indian variety notifications publish a grain hardness index, a chapati quality score out of 10, a biscuit spread factor in centimetres and grain protein percentage, because those traits pull in different directions and no grain wins all four.

Strong gluten builds the elastic network bread needs. Weak gluten spreads, which is why a biscuit spread of 8.6 cm reads as a strength on DBW 187's record. A roti wants the middle ground, and PAU went at it with PBW 1 Chapati, notified in December 2021 at 12.72 percent grain protein.

Hardness is the trait shoppers never hear about and the one that changes most. Harder grain drinks more water and gives a coarser particle, which suits suji and works against a soft roti. See what actually makes a roti soft and what milling removes when wheat becomes maida.

What do the published variety records report?

Published figures only, source named per row.

Variety	Species	Published figures	Source
DBW 303 (Karan Vaishnavi)	Bread wheat	Protein 12.1%, yield 81.2 q/ha	IIWBR RB-51, 500(E), 29.01.2021
DBW 187 (Karan Vandana)	Bread wheat	Iron 43.1 ppm, biscuit spread 8.6 cm, yield 75.5 q/ha	IIWBR RB-51, 99(E), 06.01.2020
PBW 771	Bread wheat	High grain hardness index, chapati quality 8.32, zinc 41.4 ppm	IIWBR RB-51, 99(E), 06.01.2020
PBW 1 Chapati	Bread wheat	Protein 12.72%, yield 45.1 q/ha	IIWBR RB-51, 8(E), 24.12.2021
DDW 47	Durum	Yellow pigment 7.57 ppm, pasta acceptability 7.9	IIWBR RB-51, 99(E), 06.01.2020
DDW 48	Durum	Protein 12.1%, yellow pigment 5.6 ppm	IIWBR RB-51, 500(E), 29.01.2021
Sona Moti	Sold by name	No entry in either ICAR list, so no notified protein, iron or zinc figure exists	IIWBR RB-51 and the AICRP list, searched 22 September 2026

The last row is the honest one. A grain sold by name has no public agronomic record behind it. That is a gap, not a verdict.

How do you choose a wheat when the pack names no variety?

Read the traits, not the romance. Ask what the flour is for, check whether the pack publishes protein at all, and treat a grain sold by a regional name as unverified until somebody shows you a test. For most atta the practical levers are freshness, whether the bran is in, and how the flour behaves in your dough.

Where a brand sells a named grain, the burden shifts to it. SatRas is a workable example, selling Sona Moti whole wheat atta at ₹915 for 5 kg, ₹183 a kilo, and publishing a test from an NABL-accredited laboratory rather than an ICAR notification it does not have. Ask the same of any named wheat.

A variety name says nothing about glycaemic response either, which is measured on the finished flour. What a low GI claim legally requires is a separate test.

What the variety records do not settle

Notified yields come from coordinated trials under recommended management, so they describe potential, not the sack in front of you. Scores such as chapati quality 8.32 are laboratory and panel measures on standardised flour, not on the atta a mill ships.

Biofortified iron and zinc are grain values at notification, and what survives milling, storage and cooking is a different number these records do not carry. Nothing here has been tested for health outcomes. This article is educational, not medical advice. For dietary guidance, speak to a qualified healthcare professional.

Frequently asked questions

What is HD 2967 wheat?

HD 2967 is a bread wheat from ICAR-IARI for irrigated, timely sown conditions. ICAR describes it as the variety with the largest area ever recorded in India under one name, crediting it with 50 percent of national wheat production. Published research now lists it as highly susceptible to stripe rust.

Which Indian wheat variety gives the highest recorded yield?

Among varieties notified between 2018 and 2023, DBW 303 (Karan Vaishnavi) carries the highest figures in the ICAR-IIWBR compendium, averaging 81.2 quintals a hectare against a potential of 97.4 under timely sown, irrigated conditions in the north western plains. Those are trial averages, not farm results.

Is durum wheat grown in India?

Yes. Durum and dicoccum together occupy around 4 percent of India's wheat area, durum concentrated in the central and peninsular zones. Seventy-three durum varieties had been notified up to June 2023. It is milled mainly into semolina for suji, rava and pasta, not into fine chapati flour.

Why is durum called kathia wheat in central India?

Kathia is the long-standing regional name for durum there, and ICAR uses it in its own field programmes. One example is Pusa Mangal (HI 8713), released by the IARI regional station at Indore for irrigated, timely sown central zone conditions and promoted to farmers under that name.

What does biofortified wheat mean?

Biofortified wheat varieties are bred for higher grain micronutrient content, reported at notification in parts per million. DBW 187 publishes 43.1 ppm iron, and several recent releases publish zinc in the low forties. The trait is measured in whole grain, so milling and cooking losses are not in that number.

Do farmers still grow older desi wheat in India?

Yes, in small pockets, usually sold by a regional or traditional name rather than a notified variety code. Because those grains sit outside the central and state release system, no published agronomic record exists, so any claim about protein, fibre or mineral content needs a laboratory test.