Wheat:

• Improving yield potential: Exploitation of elite (advanced high yielding lines) and diverse (winter wheat, progenitor species) germplasm using appropriate breeding methodology.
• Multiple disease resistance: Efficient incorporation of stripe rust, leaf rust, Karnal bunt, leaf blight and powdery mildew resistance in high yielding/ commercial genetic backgrounds based on sound understanding of pathogen and host
• Abiotic stress tolerance: Exploring germplasm based options for enhanced heat tolerance, lodging resistance, water and nutrient use efficiency.
• Nutritional and processing quality: Genetic enhancement for grain protein concentration, quality of chapati, bread and other end-products made from bread wheat. Enhancing grain zinc and iron content. Improving durum wheat for pasta quality.
• Precision breeding: Systematic parent building, marker assisted gene mobilization, rapid generation advance (offseason nurseries, doubled haploids), efficient – mechanized field evaluation systems, use of well developed genealogical and trait data base.

Barley:

• Yield: Development of high yielding feed and malt barley varieties.
• Malt/feed quality: Genetic enhancement of quality, particularly malt related quality in two-rowed varieties.
• Disease resistance: Resistance to yellow rust, stripe disease and leaf blight.

Rice:

• Development of lodging tolerant, disease and insect resistant hybrids with suitable grain quality and growth duration for Punjab conditions.
• Development of less water requiring (aerobic) rice genotypes.
• Development of semi-dwarf high yielding bacterial blight resistant basmati rice varieties possessing extra-long slender grains with strong aroma and excellent cooking/eating quality characteristics for export.
• Development of high yielding lodging tolerant non-basmati varieties with multiple disease and insect pest resistance, abiotic stress tolerance (submergence, salinity) and possessing acceptable grain quality and suitable crop duration
• Generation of appropriate production technologies through applied research for increasing and sustaining productivity and income from rice and rice-based cropping systems with special emphasis on labour and water saving.
• Study on the occurrence and epidemiology of major rice diseases.

Maize:

• Accelerating breeding: Doubled haploid lines, MAS, Off-season nurseries
• Strengthening work on specialty maize
• Emphasis on long duration hybrids for yield enhancement
• Development of cultivars responsive to high density
• Tolerance to excess moisture conditions during monsoon season
• Water use efficiency in spring maize (Breeding, Resource conservation)
• Development of fodder maize varieties
• Improving performance of parental lines per se (Breeding, production and protection)

Pulses:

• Development of high yielding varieties of different pulses for various cropping systems
• Incorporation of resistance/tolerance to various biotic/abiotic stresses through marker
• assisted selection
• Development of early maturing short-statured varieties of pigeonpea
• Introgression of alien genes for desirable traits from related species
• Development of food-grade soybean
• Improvement in the nutritional quality of various pulse crops
• Development of improved production and protection technology, resource conservation
• technology, weed management and cropping system-based research
• Regulation of source-sink relationship in response to growth regulators
• Development of competent microbial consortia for major pulse crops
• Identification of potential donors for major diseases and insect pests and development of
• integrated disease/pest management technology
• Establishing economic thresholds of major insect-pests

Cotton:

• Acquisition of germplasm with superior fibre quality, high lint percentage and locule shattering tolerance, it’s evaluation and use in the breeding programme.
• Development of higher yielding American cotton cutivars with high fibre strength.
• Development of desi cotton lines with locule retention, medium long staple length.
• Development of cotton varieties suitable for machine picking.
• Conversion of good combining parents into stable CMS lines and restorers.
• Development of transgenic cotton against bollworm complex.
• Molecular tagging of genes of economic importance such as fibre strength etc.
• Seed priming and pelleting for improving seed vigour.
• Development of economically viable and eco friendly pest management technologies.
• Monitoring and management of insect resistance to insect resistant cotton transgenics and pesticides.
• Development and validation of weather based forewarning pest and disease forecasting module.

Sugarcane:

• Genetic improvement of sugarcane through conventional breeding and with the outputs of biotechnology based studies of sugar accumulation.
• Breeding efforts to be targeted towards developing genotypes having high sugar content per unit area and time with resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and good ratooning ability.
• Best Management Practices (BMPs) encompassing sugarcane production and protection measures that can enhance sustainable sugarcane productivity.

Forage and Millets and NutritionSection:

• Germplasm enhancement in the forage crops & grain bajra. To breed varieties of forage crops having low antiquality components and inbuilt resistance to biotic & abiotic stresses.
• To breed quick growing water use efficient varieties of forage sorghum & bajra having high regenerability for multicuts to increase the total forage production.
• Development of erect type varieties of cowpea to increase the area under cowpea as fodder crop.
• Development of high seed & fodder yielding and dual purpose bristled hybrid having inbuilt resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses in bajra.
• To find out fertilizer requirements of fodder crops in cropping systems.
  Integrated nutrient management.
• To minimize the antinutritional components through agronomic manipulations.
• Weed management in berseem fodder crop.
• Management of Helicoverpa armigera in the seed crop of berseem & shaftal, grass hopper in maize, sorghum & Napier bajra, stem borer in fodder maize and shoot fly in forage sorghum.
• Management of stem rot in berseem, leaf spots in sorghum & oats, maydis leaf spot in maize and downy mildew and ergot in grain bajra.

Oilseeds:

• CMS based F1 hybrids in sunflower and brassicas.
• Designer cultivars for value addition e.g. canola quality in brassica.
• Dual purpose (oil and fodder) canola cultivars/hybrids of brassica. Marker assisted selection for key quality and defensive traits in brassica.
• Input use efficient (nitrogen / water use efficacy) genotypes in brassica and sunflower.
• Confectionery quality cultivars of groundnut, sesame and hybrids of sunflower.
• Disease resistance and study of pathogen variation for key diseases.
• Disease forecasting models for alternaria, sclerotinia and aphids.
• Cost effective, resource conserving and environmentally safe production and protection technologies.