1st International Wheat Congress

Some 900 delegates from 55 countries attended the first international Wheat Congres. The program consisted of joint plenary sessions and concurrent sessions, with over 100 invited speakers presenting. All plenary sessions were streamed live on the web and social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter).

 

Watch the opening ceremony and Monday plenary sessions here! CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FOOD FUTURE: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF CROP BREEDING?
Timothy D. Searchinger, Senior Fellow, World Resources Institute

 

CIMMYT scientists speaking and presenting research at the congress:

• Martin Kropff, Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) “Harnessing the power of partnerships for global wheat research and food security” 
• Matthew Reynolds, Crop Physiologist, CIMMYT  “The Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC)”
• Karim Ammar, Principal Scientist, CIMMYT “Diversification of durum wheat industrial end-uses through the genetic modification of its glutenin composition and grain texture”
• Zhonghu He, Distinguished Scientist and CIMMYT Country Liaison Officer for China “Molecular marker development and application for improving qualities in bread wheat” 
• Gemma Molero (see picture), Wheat Physiologist, CIMMYT “Evidence for the value of
  
  synthetic, landrace and introgression to improve adaptation to heat stress”
• Francisco Pinto, Remote Sensing Specialist, CIMMYT “UAV-based high-throughput phenotyping for wheat breeding and physiological pre-breeding”
• Alexey Morgounov, Leader of the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program and CIMMYT Country Representative for Turkey “Dynamics of spring wheat yields in North America and Eurasia 1981-2015: Effect of environments, climate change and germplasm adaptation”
• Hans Braun, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat “Bridging the Yield Gap”  
•  Carolina Saint Pierre, Genetic Resources Phenotyping Coordinator, CIMMYT “Global network of precision field-based wheat phenotyping platforms” 

A patchwork of legal restrictions threatens humanity’s ability to feed a growing global population.

That jeopardizes decades of hard-won food security gains, according to Ronnie Coffman, international professor of plant breeding and director of International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (IP-CALS).

“It takes an international community of scientists and genetic resources to fight pathogens like stem rust that do not respect international boundaries,” he said. “Stringent regulations and country-specific control are stifling the germplasm exchanges critical to agriculture and horticulture.”

As one part of its efforts to reduce the world’s vulnerability to wheat diseases, the Cornell-led Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat project – funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development – collects samples of plant pathogens such as stem rust and yellow rust from 40 countries and analyzes them in biosafety testing labs in Minnesota, Denmark, Canada, Turkey, Ethiopia, Kenya and India.

 

If a heat-wave like the one recorded these days was to occur 1 month earlier, at the end of May, when the Northern European wheats are in full bloom, it could cause up to 50 percent yield loses, a devastating blow to the European agriculture and food sectors that could cost billions of Euros.

CGIAR centers like ICARDA and CIMMYT have worked in close collaboration with European Universities and advanced research institutions for a long time to develop and adapt the most novel technologies for pre-breeding. It might also be advantageous for European private sector companies to start taking advantage of CGIAR stress-tolerant wheat varieties and develop a system similar to CAIGE used by Australian breeders. By taking advantage of similar environments in Morocco and Mediterranean environments in Europe, European breeders can select the promising germplasm of tomorrow and provide the continent’s agricultural sector with a practical defense against future heat-waves.