Sakha 97: A new Egyptian high yielding and rust resistant bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar

The newly released bread wheat cultivar Sakha 97 had been selected in 2018/2019 growing season by Sakha wheat breeding program team, Wheat Research Department, Field Crops Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Egypt. In 2019/2020 growing season, the newly selected cultivar was evaluated in a screening yield trial at Sakha station, Kafrelsheikh governorate, Egypt. In the view of its superiority, it was raised up to be evaluated in the national preliminary yield trial in 2020/2021 growing season, then it was evaluated in the advanced yield trial in 2021/2022, where the evaluation was conducted in 24 trials covering Delta, middle Egypt, upper Egypt and new land. The distinctness, uniformity and stability tests have been done during 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 seasons. Results proved the high yielding ability of the new cultivar Sakha 97 compared to the commercial bread wheat cultivars such as Sakha 95 with an increase of about 5% over the commercial cultivars mean as well as its good grain yield stability and strong resistance to the three wheat rust diseases under different environmental conditions. Its performance across multiple environments and seasons makes it suitable for cultivation under diverse field conditions and a valuable parent in wheat breeding for developing rust-resistant genotypes. Thus, wheat research department is recommending Sakha 97 to be a commercial cultivar to be planted all over Egypt.