Wheat is cultivated since pre-historic times in the world. From all possible records, it seems that its center of origin is South Western Asia. It is believed that Aryans brought wheat grains to India and since then it is being grown in India. Records from ancient China show that it is raised there since 2700 BC, and it was also known to Egyptians and inhabitants of Switzerland as early as Stone Age.

Wheat is the one of the staple foods of north Indian population. Wheat grains are ground in to flour (atta) and consumed mostly in the form of chapati or leavened bread. Soft wheat is used for making chapati, bread, cake, biscuits, pastry and other bakery products whereas hard wheat is used for manufacturing rawa, suji, and sewaya. In areas where rice is a staple food grain, wheat is also eaten in the form of puri etc. It is also used for making cakes and sweet meats etc. Wheat grain is used for preparing starch. Wheat straw is used as fodder, padding material and mulching material.

Wheat is grown in India on an area of about 31 Million ha. with a production of 95.91 Million tonnes and productivity of 3.1 t/ha (2013-14). Analysis of area, production and productivity of wheat during the last decade (1999-2k to 2013-14) indicated that the major wheat producing states that achieved the average productivity of 3t/ha and above are Uttar Pradesh (98.56 lakh ha), Punjab(35 lakh ha), Haryana(25.22 lakh ha), Rajasthan( 30.80 lakh ha). The significantly contributing states are Madhya Pradesh (57.92 ha), Bihar(22.57 lakh ha), Jharkhand(1.73 lakh ha), Gujarat(13.51 lakh ha), West Bengal (3.35 lakh ha) and Uttarakhand (3.48 lakh ha) are with the productivity category range of 2-3 t/ha. Maharashtra (10.97 lakh ha), J&K(2.93 lakh ha) and HP (3.56 lakh ha) are largely rainfed wheat growing stastes and have little more than 1.5 t/ha productivity. These States contribute about 99% of total wheat production in the country. Remaining States namely, Karnataka, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and other North Eastern States contribute only about rest 1 % of the total Wheat production in the country and are below 2t/ha productivity. The record production of 95.85 million tonnes of wheat in the country (as per the DES, GoI,2013-14) against the targeted production of 92.50 million tonnes during 2013-14 from an area of 30.48 million ha with the average productivity of 3.14 tonnes/ha is the significant achievement in wheat production in the country.