Employing phenology to delineate wheat agro-climatic zones in Afghanistan

Abstract

Afghanistan grows wheat on about 2.5 million hectares with an average annual production of about five million tonnes. The local research and development efforts make use of country wide research results to recommend varieties and other technologies. Afghanistan has wide ranging climatic variability and its wheat acreage therefore needs to be delineated into wheat climatic zones. A set of 10 different types of wheat varieties were scored for average number of days to 50% flowering (ADF) at 10 locations to delineate Afghan wheat acreage into homogeneous wheat climatic zones based on ADF values. The results obtained hinted at creating eastern, northern, south western and a highland zone for conducting research and recommending wheat technologies.