In what could prove to be a boon for diabetic patients, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed a new wheat variety that promises to not only control sugar level in blood but also cholesterol.

The new variety 'Dicoccum' wheat called DDK 1029 has been developed under the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) at Dharwad centre of University of Agricultural Sciences.

"Food products made from Dicoccum variety called DDK 1029, slowly dissolve in the body and release very less amount of calories. This helps to control the sugar as well as cholesterol level in blood," an ICAR statement said Friday.

DDK 1029 has a yield of nearly 3 quintal per hectare more than the best Dicoccum check DDK 1009 variety besides being better disease resistant.

"The average yield of this variety is 40.9 quintal per hectare and has been identified for cultivation in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, plains of Tamil Nadu, hilly areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala comprising the Nilgiri and Palni hills of southern plateau," the ICAR statement said.

The leading agriculture research body has also identified five new improved wheat varieties, two varieties of barley and one variety of Triticale for various agro-climatic regions of the country.

The ICAR has decided to develop new wheat varieties suited to zero-tillage system, furrow irrigated raised bed system (FIRBS) and surface seeding in network mode.

These decisions were taken at the 45th All India Wheat and Barley Research Workers' Meet held at Kanpur earlier this week.

Among the new varieties of wheat developed by ICAR is a variety DBW 17 that has yielded 1.2 quintals more than the present best variety PBW 343.

The DBW 17 variety has proven to be resistant to new yellow rust race, unlike PBW 343 and PBW 302 varieties that are susceptible to the disease.

"It also has shown better Karnal rust resistance than PBW 343. Besides this, DBW 17 has better chapatti making quality (score 7.96 out of 10) and gives average yield of 49.0 quintal per hectare," states ICAR.

The wheat variety has been identified for Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan (except Kota and Udaipur divisions) and western Uttar Pradesh (except Jhansi division), parts of Jammu and Kathua districts, besides Una district and Paonta Valley in Himachal Pradesh and Tarai region in Uttaranchal under timely sown irrigated conditions.