Introduction to the Jimai 44 Wheat Variety and Its Characteristics

In the thousand-mu demonstration area in Yikongqiao Village, Gaoli Town, Hanting District, Weifang City, Shandong Province, the new strong-gluten wheat variety “Jimai 44” has turned from green to yellow and is about to mature. This is the latest strong-gluten wheat variety bred by Chinese scientists, and it is expected to change the situation in which high-quality specialty wheat depends on imports.

“Jimai 44” was developed by the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences. It has characteristics such as high quality, disease resistance, lodging resistance, early maturity and water saving, and is suitable for making bread and noodles with elasticity and chewiness. In 2018, the National Wheat Industrial Technology System conducted quality testing and analysis on 65 wheat varieties from 11 major wheat-producing provinces. The results showed that the crude protein content, development time and stability time of “Jimai 44” were significantly higher than those of other wheat varieties.

According to Li Faji, assistant researcher at the Crop Research Institute of the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, generally speaking, it is difficult for wheat varieties to be both high-yielding and high-quality, while “Jimai 44” combines yield and quality very well. In two consecutive years of experimental planting, “Jimai 44” reached the standard for first-class strong-gluten wheat, with an average yield of 603.7 kg per mu over the two years, an increase of 2.3% compared with “Jimai 22”, a high-yielding variety that ranked first in national promotion area for 9 consecutive years.