Nearly half of the world’s wheat-growing land is sown with varieties developed by an international network of plant scientists, or their national partners, says a report by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. Adoption of the new varieties has been particularly brisk since 2010, “which may be due to the introduction of rust-resistance varieties in recent years,” says the study.
The Ug-99 wheat rust fungus is a threat to production in Africa and the Middle East because the disease overwhelms older varieties that lack natural resistance. The authors said varieties bred or derived by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research covered 106 million hectares (260 million acres) of land in 32 countries that have three-fourths of the world’s 222 million hectares (550 million acres) of wheat land.
The sustained, higher yields of the new CGIAR-related varieties were worth $2.2-$3.1 billion a year, according to the study. By comparison, CGIAR spends $30 million annually on wheat improvement reseach. “The benefit-cost ratio … ranged from 73:1 to 103:1 and appears dramatically to justify the improvements made,” says the study.