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The race against time to breed a wheat to survive the climate crisis

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in In the media.

CIMMYT scientists are using biodiversity, testing forgotten wheat varieties from across the world, to find those with heat- and drought-tolerant traits. The aim is to outpace human-made global heating and breed climate-resilient varieties so yields do not collapse, as worst-case scenarios predict.

Reporter visited CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, in Mexico’s Sonora state, and witnessed CIMMYT’s unique role in fighting climate change through the development of resilient varieties as “international public goods”.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/12/wheat-breeding-climate-crisis-drought-resistant

A generalized wiring diagram for wheat, as proposed by the authors. The diagram depicts the traits most commonly associated with the source (left) and sink (right) strengths and others that impact both the sink and source, largely dependent on growth stage (middle). TGW, thousand grain weight.

Diagram links physiological traits of wheat for yield potential

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Press releases.

A generalized wiring diagram for wheat, as proposed by the authors. The diagram depicts the traits most commonly associated with the source (left) and sink (right) strengths and others that impact both the sink and source, largely dependent on growth stage (middle). TGW, thousand grain weight.
A generalized wiring diagram for wheat, as proposed by the authors. The diagram depicts the traits most commonly associated with the source (left) and sink (right) strengths and others that impact both the sink and source, largely dependent on growth stage (middle). TGW, thousand grain weight.

As crop yields are pushed closer to biophysical limits, achieving yield gains becomes increasingly challenging. Traditionally, scientists have worked on the premise that crop yield is a function of photosynthesis (source), the investment of assimilates into reproductive organs (sinks) and the underlying processes that enable and connect the expression of both. Although the original source-and-sink model remains valid, it must embrace more complexity, as scientific understanding improves.

A group of international researchers are proposing a new wiring diagram to show the interrelationships of the physiological traits that impact wheat yield potential, published on Nature Food. By illustrating these linkages, it shows connections among traits that may not have been apparent, which could serve as a decision support tool for crop scientists. The wiring diagram can inform new research hypotheses and breeding decisions, as well as research investment areas.

The diagram can also serve as a platform onto which new empirical data are routinely mapped and new concepts added, thereby creating an ever-richer common point of reference for refining models in the future.

“If routinely updated, the wiring diagram could lead to a paradigm change in the way we approach breeding for yield and targeting translational research,” said Matthew Reynolds, Distinguished Scientist and Head of Wheat Physiology at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and lead author of the study. “While focused on yield potential, the tool can be readily adapted to address climate resilience in a range of crops besides wheat.”

Breeding milestone

The new wiring diagram represents a milestone in deterministic plant breeding. It dovetails simpler models with crop simulation models.

It takes into account how source and sink strengths may interact with wheat developmental stages to determine yield. For example, at the time of stem growth, spike growth or effective grain filling.

This diagram can be used to illustrate the relative importance of specific connections among traits in their appropriate phenological context and to highlight major gaps in knowledge. This graphical representation can also serve as a roadmap to prioritize research at other levels of integration, such as metabolomic or gene expression studies. The wiring diagram can be deployed to identify ways for improving elite breeding material and to explore untapped genetic resources for unique traits and alleles.

Yield for climate resilience

The wheat scientific community is hard at work seeking new ways to get higher yields more quickly to help the world cope with population growth, climate change, wars and stable supplies of calories and protein.

“To ensure food and nutritional security in the future, raising yields must be an integral component of making crops more climate-resilient. This new tool can serve as a roadmap to design the necessary strategies to achieve these goals,” said Jeff Gwyn, Program Director of the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP).

— ENDS —

READ THE FULL PUBLICATION:

A wiring-diagram to integrate physiological traits of wheat yield potential

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:

Matthew Reynolds – Distinguished Scientist and Head of Wheat Physiology at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

Gustavo Ariel Slafer – Research Professor at the Catalonian Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and Associate Professor of the University of Lleida

For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact the CIMMYT media team:

Marcia MacNeil and Rodrigo Ordóñez: https://staging.cimmyt.org/media-center/

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

The study is an international collaboration of scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Catalonian Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), the Center for Research in Agrotechnology (AGROTECNIO), the University of Lleida, the University of Nottingham, the John Innes Centre, Lancaster University, Technische UniversitĂ€t MĂŒnchen, CSIRO Agriculture & Food, and the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP).

ABOUT CIMMYT:

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is an international organization focused on non-profit agricultural research and training that empowers farmers through science and innovation to nourish the world in the midst of a climate crisis.

Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works to achieve a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agri-food systems. CIMMYT’s research brings enhanced productivity and better profits to farmers, mitigates the effects of the climate crisis, and reduces the environmental impact of agriculture.

CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.

For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.

ABOUT IWYP:

The International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) represents a long-term global endeavor that utilizes a collaborative approach to bring together funding from public and private research organizations from a large number of countries. Over the first five years, the growing list of partners aims to invest up to US$100 million.

For more information, visit https://iwyp.org

Wheat fields at CIMMYT's experimental stations near Ciudad ObregĂłn, Sonora state, Mexico. (Photo: M. Ellis/CIMMYT)

Scientists bridge theory and practice to boost climate resilience in wheat

Written by Alison Doody on . Posted in Features.

With the past decade identified as the warmest on record and global temperatures predicted to rise by as much as 2 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels by 2050, the world’s staple food crops are increasingly under threat.

A new review published this month in the Journal of Experimental Botany describes how researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and collaborators are boosting climate resilience in wheat using powerful remote sensing tools, genomics and big data analysis. Scientists are combining multiple approaches to explore untapped diversity among wheat genetic resources and help select better parents and progeny in breeding.

The review — authored by a team of 25 scientists from CIMMYT, Henan Agricultural University, the University of Adelaide and the Wheat Initiative — also outlines how this research can be harnessed on a global level to further accelerate climate resilience in staple crops.

“An advantage of understanding abiotic stress at the level of plant physiology is that many of the same tools and methods can be applied across a range of crops that face similar problems,” said first author and CIMMYT wheat physiologist Matthew Reynolds.

Abiotic stresses such as temperature extremes and drought can have devastating impacts on plant growth and yields, posing a massive risk to food security.

Harnessing research across a global wheat improvement network for climate resilience: research gaps, interactive goals, and outcomes.
Harnessing research across a global wheat improvement network for climate resilience: research gaps, interactive goals, and outcomes.

Addressing research gaps

The authors identified nine key research gaps in efforts to boost climate resilience in wheat, including limited genetic diversity for climate resilience, a need for smarter strategies for stacking traits and addressing the bottleneck between basic plant research and its application in breeding.

Based on a combination of the latest research advances and tried-and-tested breeding methods, the scientists are developing strategies to address these gaps. These include:

  • Using big data analysis to better understand stress profiles in target environments and design wheat lines with appropriate heat and drought adaptive traits.
  • Exploring wheat genetic resources for discovery of novel traits and genes and their use in breeding.
  • Accelerating genetic gains through selection techniques that combine phenomics with genomics.
  • Crowd-sourcing new ideas and technologies from academia and testing them in real-life breeding situations.

These strategies will be thoroughly tested at the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Network (HeDWIC) Hub under realistic breeding conditions and then disseminated to other wheat breeding programs around the world facing similar challenges.

One factor that strongly influences the success and acceleration of climate resilience technologies, according to Reynolds, is the gap between theoretical discovery research and crop improvement in the field.

“Many great ideas on how to improve climate-resilience of crops pile up in the literature, but often remain ‘on the shelf’ because the research space between theory and practice falls between the radar of academia on the one hand, and that of plant breeders on the other,” Reynolds explained.

Translational research — efforts to convert basic research knowledge about plants into practical applications in crop improvement — represents a necessary link between the world of fundamental discovery and farmers’ fields and aims to bridge this gap.

Main research steps involved in translating promising technologies into genetic gains (graphical abstract, adapted from Reynolds and Langridge, 2016). Reprinted under licence CC BY-NC-ND.
Main research steps involved in translating promising technologies into genetic gains (graphical abstract, adapted from Reynolds and Langridge, 2016). Reprinted under licence CC BY-NC-ND.

The impacts of this research, conducted under HeDWIC — a project led by CIMMYT in partnership with experts around the world — will be validated on a global scale through the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN), with the potential to reach at least half of the world’s wheat-growing area.

The results will benefit breeders and researchers but, most importantly, farmers and consumers around the world who rely on wheat for their livelihoods and their diets. Wheat accounts for about 20% of all human calories and protein, making it a pillar of food security. For about 1.5 billion resource-poor people, wheat is their main daily staple food.

With the world population projected to rise to almost ten billion by 2050, demand for food is predicted to increase with it. This is especially so for wheat, being a versatile crop both in terms of where it can grow and its many culinary and industrial uses. However, current wheat yield gains will not meet 2050 demand unless serious action is taken. Translational research and strategic breeding are crucial elements in ensuring that research is translated into higher and stable yields to meet these challenges.

Read the full study:
Harnessing translational research in wheat for climate resilience

Cover photo: Wheat fields at CIMMYT’s experimental stations near Ciudad ObregĂłn, Sonora state, Mexico. (Photo: M. Ellis/CIMMYT)

A CIMMYT technician cuts a leaf sample for DNA extraction. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Breeders take quantum leap

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in News.

A CIMMYT technician cuts a leaf sample for DNA extraction. (Photo: CIMMYT)
A CIMMYT technician cuts a leaf sample for DNA extraction. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Wheat breeders from across the globe took a big step towards modernizing their molecular breeding skills at a recent workshop sponsored by the Wheat Initiative, with the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform (EiB) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

The workshop focused on three open-source tools used in molecular breeding: GOBii-GDM for genomic data management, Flapjack for data visualization and breeding analysis, and Galaxy for Genomic Selection. These tools help breeders make selections more quickly and precisely, and ultimately lead to more cost effective and efficient improvement of varieties.

The Wheat Initiative — a global scientific collaboration whose goals are to create improved wheat varieties and disseminate better agronomic practices worldwide — and its Breeding Methods and Strategies expert working group had planned to host these trainings during the 2020 Borlaug Global Rust Initiative Technical Workshop in the United Kingdom. After it became obvious that in-person trainings were not possible, the course organizers — including CIMMYT molecular wheat breeder Susanne Dreisigacker and EiB Adoption Lead and former GOBii project director Elizabeth Jones — decided to come together to host online workshops.

Many of the tools will be incorporated into EiB’s Enterprise Breeding System (EBS), a new integrated data management system being developed for CGIAR breeders. Jones plans to also design training modules for these molecular breeding tools that will be accessible to anyone through the EiB Toolbox.

In the meantime, the tools used in the workshop are all freely available: DArTView, Flapjack (training videos), GOBii-GDM (request access through the web form or by email), and Galaxy Genomic Selection.

The first session of the workshop “Transforming Wheat Breeding Through Integrated Data Management with GOBii and Analysis in Flapjack” benefited breeders from Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Pakistan, Switzerland, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The first session of the workshop “Transforming Wheat Breeding Through Integrated Data Management with GOBii and Analysis in Flapjack” benefited breeders from Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Pakistan, Switzerland, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Susanne Dreisigacker presents during one of the sessions of the workshop.
Susanne Dreisigacker presents during one of the sessions of the workshop.

Powering data analysis around the world

The workshop series, “Transforming Wheat Breeding Through Integrated Data Management with GOBii and Analysis in Flapjack,” aimed to benefit breeders from wheat producing countries all over the world, with sessions over two different time zones spread out over three days to reduce “Zoom fatigue.” Participants joined the first session from Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Pakistan, Switzerland, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“It was wonderful to see the diversity of participants that we were able to train through an online workshop, many of whom otherwise might not have been able to travel to the UK for the original meeting,” said Jones. “Participants were very engaged, making the workshop so rewarding.”

The workshop was guided by Teresa Saavedra, Wheat Initiative coordinator. Apart from Dreisigacker and Jones, other trainers explained specific tools and approaches. Iain Milne from the James Hutton Institute in Scotland gave more details about the Flapjack genotyping visualization tool, which includes analysis for pedigree verification, marker assisted backcrossing and forward breeding. Andrew Kowalczyk, developer at Diversity Arrays Technology, spoke about the genotyping data QC tool DArTView.

A CIMMYT technician performs one of the steps to extract DNA samples from plants. (Photo: CIMMYT)
A CIMMYT technician performs one of the steps to extract DNA samples from plants. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Clay Sneller, wheat breeder at Ohio State University, contributed training materials for important molecular breeding tools. Carlos Ignacio, previously based at the International Rice Research Center (IRRI) and now working on a PhD in Genomic Selection at Ohio State University, contributed his experience as a GOBii team member and a major contributor towards the design of Flapjack tools. Star Gao, application specialist with GOBii and now a requirements analyst for the Enterprise Breeding System, also facilitated the sessions.

Gilles Charmet, research director at the France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), introduced the sessions in the Americas/Europe time zone with welcome remarks and overview of the goals of the Wheat Initiative. Alison Bentley, director of the CIMMYT Global Wheat Program, briefed on the achievements and goals of the CIMMYT Wheat program and the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) project.

“This training will contribute towards us reaching our AGG goals of accelerating gains in wheat, by sharing technical knowledge, and allowing our beneficiary partners to have state-of-the-art know-how in the use of genetic and genomic data,” Bentley said.

Participant StĂ©phane Boury from Caussade Semences, France commented, “This was a very effective way to learn about new tools in wheat breeding.”

The sessions continue in Australasia next week, and will be introduced by Peter Langridge, chair of the Scientific Board for the Wheat Initiative, and EiB director Michael Quinn. Sanjay Kumar Singh, incoming chair of the Breeding expert working group for the Wheat Initiative, will close the event.

Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC)

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) is a global research and capacity building network that takes wheat research from the theoretical to the practical by incorporating the best science into real-life breeding scenarios.

By harnessing the latest technologies in crop physiology, genetics and breeding, HeDWIC makes it easier for wheat scientists to work together on solutions to the complex problems of heat and drought adaptation, contributing to the development of new, climate-resilient wheat varieties for farmers. HeDWIC-associated scientists examine current breeding material and collections held in germplasm banks and apply genomic and phenomic tools to identify novel diversity for heat, drought adaptative traits. This results in novel pre-bred lines in terms of genetic diversity for key stress-adaptive traits suitable for use in breeding programs and/or re-selection as cultivars.

The consortium delivers these lines to public and private wheat programs worldwide via the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN) — coordinated for more than half a century by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) — as international public goods whose global impacts are well documented. Through PhD sponsorships and other opportunities for involvement in research, HeDWIC also provides hands-on training to young scientists, preparing a new generation of crop experts to tackle the pressing issues of crop adaptation under future climate scenarios.

HeDWIC adds value to developing more climate-resilient wheat varieties by:

  • Facilitating global coordination of wheat research related to heat and drought stress in partnership with the Wheat Initiative.
  • Developing research and breeding technologies in response to the priorities of stakeholders: researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, national programs, and funding organizations.
  • Connecting geographically and agro-climatically diverse sites for rigorous testing of promising concepts.
  • Curating data resources for use by the global wheat research community.
  • Accelerating the deployment of new knowledge and strategies for developing more climate resilient wheat.
  • Preparing a new generation of promising young scientists from climate-affected regions to tackle crop improvement challenges faced by their own countries.
  • Building additional scientific capacity of wheat researchers in a coordinated fashion that enables a faster response to productivity threats associated with climate change.
  • Enabling farmers to adapt to wheat production in a hotter and drier climate faster due to the coordinated effort and synergy lent by HeDWIC.

HeDWIC is directly funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) and is supported by in-kind contributions from IWIN, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)-funded Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) project, the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), the International Wheat Yield Partnership, the Wheat Initiative’s AHEAD, and many international partners who support research and capacity building activities through ongoing collaboration.

It also builds on decades of breeding and collaborative research under abiotic stress coordinated by CIMMYT, with support from agencies including Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), the CGIAR Trust Fund —in particular the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) — Australia’s Grains Research Development Corporation (GRDC), Germany’s Ministry of Agriculture (BMEL), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and others.

Durum wheat drought tolerance trials in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, 2017. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

FFAR grant develops climate-resilient wheat

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Press releases.

Durum wheat drought tolerance trials in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, 2017. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
Durum wheat drought tolerance trials in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, 2017. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

Wheat constitutes 20% of all calories and protein consumed, making it a cornerstone of the human diet, according to the United Nations. However, hotter and drier weather, driven by a changing climate, threatens the global wheat supply. To address this threat, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) awarded a $5 million grant to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to develop climate-resilient wheat. CIMMYT leads global research programs on maize and wheat, sustainable cropping systems and policies to improve farmers’ livelihoods. These activities have driven major gains in wheat variety improvement across the globe for decades; in the US alone, for example, over 50% of the wheat acreage is sown with CIMMYT-related varieties.

Wheat is among the most widely grown cereal crops in the world and the third-largest crop grown in the US by acre. Nearly all US wheat crops are improved and supported by public agriculture research. As most wheat in the US is dependent on rainfall and has no access to irrigation, this research is critical for helping the plants — and producers — weather climatic changes including extreme heat and drought. Additionally, the demand for wheat is expected to rise in the coming years — as much as 60% by 2050. Without public research, wheat production could decrease by nearly 30% over the same period due to extreme climate conditions.

“FFAR leverages public agriculture research funding through public-private partnerships to pioneer actionable research. With temperatures on the rise and water becoming scarcer, we are committed to supporting wheat farmers and providing new wheat varieties designed with future environmental challenges in mind,” said FFAR’s Executive Director Sally Rockey.

Using the FFAR grant, CIMMYT researchers are pioneering wheat breeding technologies to produce heat-tolerant, drought-resistant and climate-resilient wheat.

CIMMYT researchers and collaborators are applying cutting-edge approaches in genomics, remote sensing and big data analysis to develop new breeding technologies. A key intervention will explore the vast and underutilized reserve of wheat genetic resources to fortify the crop against current and future climate-related stresses.

“This project will help bridge a longstanding gap between state-of-the-art technological findings and crop improvement to deliver climate resilient wheat to farmers as quickly as possible,” said Matthew Reynolds, head of Wheat Physiology at CIMMYT and principal investigator of the project.

Breakthroughs from the FFAR funded project will achieve impact for growers via the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN) that supplies new wheat lines to public and private breeding programs worldwide, and has boosted productivity and livelihoods for wheat farmers for over half a century, especially in the Global South.

The research and breeding supported by FFAR will be conducted under the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC), a project led by CIMMYT in partnership with experts across the globe, designed to ensure wheat’s long-term climate resilience. Under the umbrella of the Wheat Initiative’s AHEAD unit, the most relevant advances in academia will be channeled to HeDWIC to help further boost impacts.

“‘Heat,’ ‘drought’ and ‘wheat’ are three of the most important words for billions of people,” said CIMMYT Interim Deputy Director for Research Kevin Pixley. “This partnership between CIMMYT and FFAR will help ensure that the best agricultural science is applied to sustainably raise production of one of the world’s most important staple crops, despite unprecedented challenges.”

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff said, “This project represents not only a breakthrough to develop wheat for the future, but also an emerging partnership between CIMMYT and FFAR. I look forward to a productive collaboration that will move us all closer to our mission of maize and wheat science for improved livelihoods.”

FFAR’s investment was matched by co-investments from the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) and Accelerating Genetic Gains for Maize and Wheat (AGG), a project which is jointly funded by  the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).

FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, CONTACT:

Marcia MacNeil, Communications Officer, CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, CIMMYT. +52 5951148943, m.macneil@cgiar.org

Brian Oakes, FFAR. +1 202-604-5756, boakes@foundationfar.org

About the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing big food and agriculture challenges. FFAR was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase public agriculture research investments, fill knowledge gaps and complement USDA’s research agenda. FFAR’s model matches federal funding from Congress with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. Through collaboration and partnerships, FFAR advances actionable science benefiting farmers, consumers and the environment.

Connect: @FoundationFAR | @RockTalking

About CIMMYT

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.

For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org

Scientists seal agreement to boost adaptability of wheat to climate change

Written by on . Posted in Press releases.

climate change FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Frankfurt, Germany – December 9, 2014 – Wild ancestral relatives of wheat will play a key role in fortifying the world’s food supply as climate change warms the planet, according to a team of top scientists.

Heat and drought are already a major cause of wheat yield losses in both developing and developed countries, a situation that scientists predict will worsen due to warmer temperatures and erratic rainfall patterns caused by global climate change. Some of the potential risks were demonstrated in 2003, when farmers in France lost nearly a quarter of their crop due to an unusually hot growing season.

More than 100 plant scientists from 22 major wheat-growing countries in the global south and north, met last week to discuss an ambitious international plan to incorporate the most advanced genetic technologies into traditional plant breeding to improve heat and drought tolerance of wheat.

“Not only are the livelihoods of farmers at risk from climate change, but people living in some of the world’s most vulnerable areas could see entire food supplies wiped out with increasing frequency if we don’t act quickly to boost the resilience of wheat to heat waves and more extreme periods of drought,” said Matthew Reynolds, a distinguished scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), who co-organized the three-day Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) meeting.

“A new generation of plant screening and molecular technologies can speed up our capacity to transfer stress-tolerance traits into new wheat varieties. Wild relatives of wheat, which evolved in hot and dry places, will provide the crucial genes we need for crop improvement,” Reynolds added.

Findings in a report released earlier this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) state it is very likely that heat waves will occur more often and last longer throughout the 21st century and rainfall will be more unpredictable.

Mean surface temperatures could potentially rise by between 2 to 5 degrees Celsius or more, despite efforts to limit the global rise in temperature to 2 degrees Celsius, the report said.

Wheat – a major staple crop, which provides 20 percent of calories consumed worldwide and is an important source of protein especially for poor consumers– is expected to be subject to dramatic increases in temperature and more variable and extreme precipitation, particularly in tropical and semi-tropical regions.

“The risks to food security will be highest for people living in vulnerable parts of Africa and Asia, but will affect the disadvantaged and low-income communities in every country,” Reynolds said.

Adaptation can play a key role in reducing potential socio-economic shocks caused by climate change.

HeDWIC, launched in 2014 by the Global Agricultural Research Partnership (CGIAR) Research Program on Wheat, is a multi-disciplinary, 15- to 20-year global partnership serving as a vehicle for plant scientists to address these food security challenges. In its initial stages, it will be funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, and attract support from other public and private sector donors.

The meeting was organized by CIMMYT, CGIAR’s lead research center for wheat, part of a global coalition that includes CGIAR’s International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and shares a mandate to deliver new wheat cultivars to resource-poor farmers. It was co-sponsored by Bayer CropScience, which has heavily invested in wheat breeding as part of its overall mission to provide agricultural technologies for professional farmers and growers.

Co-organizers of the event included the Julius Kuehn Institute (JKI), Germany’s Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants affiliated with the country’s Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and the international public-private Wheat Initiative coalition.

“The meeting was a good example of the private and public sectors working together to solve a common problem,” said Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program.

“We’ve laid the foundations for a successful research venture that will help farmers and many of the world’s most marginalized people living in some of the most difficult environmental conditions. From here, we’ll produce a comprehensive road map,” he said.

Representatives from international development and science funding agencies also attended the three-day meeting

Contacts:

Matthew Reynolds
Distinguished Scientist
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Email: m.reynolds@cgiar.org

Julie Mollins
Wheat Communications Officer
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Telephone: +52 (55) 5804 2004
Email: j.mollins@cgiar.org

Address:
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Km. 45 Carretera MĂ©xico Veracruz
El BatĂĄn, Texcoco
Estado de MĂ©xico, C.P. 56237

About the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
CIMMYT, headquartered in El Batan, Mexico, is the global leader in research for development in wheat and maize and wheat- and maize-based farming systems. CIMMYT works throughout the developing world with hundreds of partners to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems to improve food security and livelihoods.

CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium and leads the Consortium Research Programs on Wheat and Maize. CIMMYT receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.
CIMMYT wheat research: http://staging.cimmyt.org/en/what-we-do/wheat-research
Additional links:

JKI: http://www.jki.bund.de/en

ICARDA: http://www.icarda.org/

CGIAR: http://www.cgiar.org/

Wheat: http://www.wheat.org

Bayer CropScience: http://www.cropscience.bayer.com/

Wheat Initiative: http://www.wheatinitiative.org/

IPCC: http://www.ipcc.ch