Commencing in late September 2007, the project started slightly behind the original scheduled start time of July 1, 2008. The delay was primarily due to final approval processes between the different research partners.
Despite the delayed start preparations for the delivery of a range of project activities were quickly actioned, due to the need to establish the range of primary and secondary field trials and demonstration sites and associated activities.
The appointment of the two Research associates linked to the project at the two Indian institutions namely the Directorate of Wheat Research in Karnal and the Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar were delayed due to internal institutional approval processes. Recently two appointments have been made, with the Research Associates commencing during April at the Directorate of Wheat Research, and the end of June at Haryana Agricultural University. These appointments will provide a much needed resource boost to the project, and reduce the additional workloads on the senior project team staff at the two Indian locations.
The Indian partners have proven to be extremely efficient and effective in the delivery of the research and demonstration trials associated with the project, given the constraints associated with the delay in the start time of the project, and appointment of the two Indian research Associates.

The project has the overarching objective of improving farm profitability in north-west India (focussing on Haryana) by improving the grain quality of the wheat produced. It therefore is important that a production and marketing culture is developed that recognises quality attributes and how these can be achieved and rewarded. This project thus aims at identifying the practices that farmers can adopt as part of an integrated system for enhancing both quality and wheat yield. The field demonstration and research components of the project reach into crop rotational sequences involving cotton-wheat, sugar cane-wheat, pearl-millet-wheat and cluster bean-wheat; this is a significant achievement, given that much of the on-farm research in Haryana has tended to focus upon the rice-wheat cropping systems. These experiments include comparisons of conventional tillage and zero till, nitrogen fertiliser use (split applications), micronutrients use, irrigation treatments, and evaluation of wheat varieties with different times of sowing. These field trials are being managed to an extremely high standard in terms of presentation, completeness of treatments and measurements, and the strong linkages between research plans and what the project is aiming to discover and demonstrate to the farming community. Undertaking field trials and demonstrations on-farm presents many challenges compared with institutionally based field research, as there are many factors that can be out of the control of the researchers. In this project the Indian researchers have managed this on-farm research in an extremely professional manner - farmer participation has been excellent and there now are excellent linkages with the State Department of Agriculture and the HAU KVKs at all field sites. This cooperation and enthusiasm for the project work has built significantly over the last year and in some instances staff from these groups are responsible for establishing and maintaining the sites. The Hariyali Kisan Bazaar (HKB) commitment to the project also continues to gain momentum, providing an excellent model of engaging the private agribusiness network in such project work. This broad base to managing the on-farm research and demonstration provides much more impact as part of the overall extension outreach strategy.
There has been significant effort dedicated to the development of improved relationships and enhanced linkages across the agribusiness and State extension networks. This has been demonstrated through the development of crop monitoring resources and guides, regular communication between stakeholders, and increased ownership and participation in a range of extension field days, farmer field walks and contributions to other project activities such as field trials and demonstrations. There has been excellent liaison between the research personnel and agribusiness agronomists from the HKB network in not only activities linked to this project, but also in other field agronomy based research projects. This is assisting in the improvement in the extension outreach activities associated with the project. Such linkages with the State extension and agribusiness staff is also assisting in building the amount of available information and market signals in relation to trends in the marketing of grain. Whilst the market incentives are somewhat dulled due to the continued lack of price differentiation in the market place relating to grain quality (and the associated Government procurement of grain and general inflexibility in Minimum Set Pricing), it is evident that there is an increasing awareness of the importance of quality in specifically targeted markets, in addition to other specified market demands (such as clean and green grain, and an increasing consumer consciousness relating to organically grown grain). As the project continues to generate excellent agronomic management data sets relating to optimal production systems for achieving quality grain, the project will aim to further concentrate on market place analysis of niche marketing opportunities and trends for quality wheat grain in the Indian domestic sector.

The project has the overarching objective of improving farm profitability in north-west India (focussing on Haryana) by improving the grain quality of the wheat produced. It therefore is important that a production and marketing culture is developed that recognises quality attributes and how these can be achieved and rewarded. This project has through two years of field experiments identified practices that farmers can adopt as part of an integrated system for enhancing both quality and wheat yield. The field demonstration and research components of the project carried out in diverse environments and on farmer fields have included comparisons of conventional tillage and zero till, nitrogen fertiliser use (split applications), micronutrients use, irrigation treatments, and evaluation of wheat varieties with different times of sowing. Consistent data was achieved in seasons 2007-08 and 2008-09 that has provided the agronomic best-practice protocol that is established in the field experiments in 2009-10. The basis of best-practice for chapatti quality is early-November sowing, variety choice, zero tillage, micro- and secondary nutrient input (particularly Zn and S) and strategic N-fertiliser that is integrated with irrigation management. This package of agronomic management is additive in its effect and improves the chapatti quality of the farmer preferred (high yielding) wheats, though these wheats still do not reach the desired chapatti quality levels preferred by consumers.
At all stages of this research program farmers have participated through assisting in the site development and attending in large numbers the site-based field days (total 1350 attendees at 8 separate sites). The sites have been an excellent basis for linkages with the State Department of Agriculture and the HAU KVKs and the project partners. The Hariyali Kisan Bazaar (HKB) commitment to the project also continues, providing an excellent model of engaging the private agribusiness network in such project work. This broad base to managing the on-farm research and demonstrations provides much more impact as part of the overall extension outreach strategy. There has been significant effort dedicated to the development of improved relationships and enhanced linkages across the agribusiness and State extension networks. This has been demonstrated through the use of crop monitoring resources and guides, regular communication between stakeholders, and increased ownership and participation in a range of extension field days, farmer field walks and contributions to other project activities such as field trials and demonstrations. There has been excellent liaison between the research personnel and agribusiness agronomists from the HKB network in not only activities linked to this project, but also in other field agronomy based research projects. This is assisting in the improvement in the extension outreach activities associated with the project. Such linkages with the State extension and agribusiness staff is also assisting in building the amount of available information and market signals in relation to trends in the marketing of grain. Whilst the market incentives are somewhat dulled due to the continued lack of price differentiation in the market place, it is evident that there is an increasing awareness of the importance of quality in specifically targeted markets. For example village in Amoli (Jhajjar district) farmers grow 40% of their wheat with variety C-306 (high chapatti quality) and transport this grain 80km to markets where high premium prices are attained. As the project continues to generate excellent agronomic management data and farmer awareness to the practice relating to optimal production systems for achieving quality grain, the project will concentrate on market place analysis of niche marketing opportunities and trends for quality wheat grain in the Indian domestic sector.