ICARDA's Durum Wheat Breeding Program aims to deliver superior varieties with increased yields against a backdrop of rapid climate change. ICARDA's durum wheat program also seeks to reverse the erosion of the crop's genetic diversity resulting from historical selection pressure for commercial farming.
Breeding between durum elite lines and their wild relatives collected and conserved by ICARDA's genebank and international nursery system is a promising method to restore variability to the modern breeding wheat germplasm while maintaining tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses and improving productivity.
The ICARDA durum wheat breeder Bassi Filippo has been leading the program since 2014. New durum wheat lines aligned to product lines can also be found in the ICARDA International Nurseries.
Durum Wheat for Senegal Basin
