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Our future world relies on wheat research today

1 January 2012 | Categories: future, wheat, CIMMYT, food security, Australia, GRDC

 

After decades of stagnating investment in its agricultural R&D program the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT ) has seen its budget nearly double in the past three years as food security concerns escalate worldwide.

With the renewed financial support has come a bold new agenda that includes productivity goals that move well beyond previous strategic thinking. CIMMYT is responding to the unprecedented intensity of the stresses bearing down on farmers from the combined effects of population growth, climate change and diminishing natural resources, especially water.

CIMMYT’s director general Dr Thomas Lumpkin says that generous funding is now coming from non-traditional sources. Mexico for example is now CIMMYT’s biggest donor nation and India has provided 500 hectares and funds to create the Borlaug Institute for South Asia, a new focal point for agricultural research and development in the region.

The centre is also engaged in strategic alliances with several large agribusinesses including Sygenta, Pioneer and Monsanto – which will donate their advanced technology to benefit smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia.

Amid all the new activity and growth Dr Lumpkin says CIMMYT is grateful for the sustained investment provided by Australia from the GRDC, which has supported projects to import and evaluate CIMMYT wheat germplasm for use in Australia since 1994, and through ACIAR. Australia’s support is especially well received for many reasons – for the budget, the consistency of support and for the mentality. We share similar attitudes to many things with Australia, especially in wheat breeding and development.

Between GRDC and ACIAR, Australia in 2010 provided US$6.7 million towards CIMMYT’s US$65.5 million budget. Because of shared interest there is close collaboration with Australia on a range of products including:

• Breeding for drought tolerance – this includes crossing Australian lines noted for their drought tolerance with elite CIMMYT lines known for their yield stability, disease resistance and high yield potential.
• Provision and evaluation of rust-resistant wheat germplasm throught the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program
• Breeding for resistance to soil-borne diseases, especially cereal cyst, root lesion nematodes and crown rot
• Transferring karnal bunt resistance genes into adapting Australian wheat lines in preparation for an incursion
• Transfer of new dwarfing genes identified in Australia

Past investment has been beneficial to Australian farmers. More than 90% of the wheat grown in Australia has ancestry that traces back to CIMMYT’s genebank. The value of these resources has been estimated at nearly $150 million a year.

Dr Lumpkin believes wheat production systems are coming under intensifying pressure from a combination of stresses. Prime concerns are heat stress, rising transportation costs, dwindling groundwater resources and disease pressure.

He says impacts are already discernible, with subsistence farmers shifting from wheat to more heat-tolerant maize, even in regions where there is no tradition of eating maize

In a recently published study researchers found significant climate change effects already for crops like wheat. Climate shift over the past three decades have been linked to a 5.5% decline in global wheat production. Based on models it is reasonable to assume that by 2050 higher temperatures will cut wheat yields by 20-30% in developing countries if no mitigating measures are taken.

Innovation, foresight and collaboration can make a big difference and is highlighted in an impact study published in Science. It found that without the improved varieties developed by the international centres such as CIMMYT, crop yields in 2000 would have been about 20% lower, prices as much as 66% higher, caloric intake 14% lower in the developing world.

The next Green Revolution, however comes with the added need of gains in sustainability, not just productivity.

“Every day at CIMMYT we think about 2050, about the farming conditions we face,” he says. “It takes scientists 15 to 20 years to get innovation into farmer’s fields. So we must use foresight now to prepare for a very challenging future.”