(File photo/ farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Crop advancements

Researchers study new form of super wheat

Jul 29, 2019 | 12:25 PM

Researchers are examining ways to develop a genetically superior wheat that delivers high yields and shows more resistance to diseases and insects.

The prairie wheat commissions have announced a combined investment of more than $1.9 million over four years for the research. Harvey Brooks, General Manager of the Saskatchewan Wheat Commission, was asked by farmnewsNOW what he perceived as the end goal.

“The end goal here is to improve the relative net profitability of wheat for Saskatchewan farmers,” he said.

The research itself builds on work that was started five years ago, with the sequencing of the wheat genome. Brooks said after only three years, they were able to get very good results and they had a sequenced wheat genome with very good definition.

“This research follows up on that work to try and identify aspects of the genome that can be used to exploit certain aspects that will lead to better yields, better disease resistance, and better tolerance of other stresses like drought and flood and insects,” he said.

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Brooks acknowledged that the research takes a “deep dive”, explaining wheat has been domesticated for a long, and the genome becomes too predictable, but Brooks remains optimistic producers will see benefits in the foreseeable future.

“We have had tremendous advancements in the last number of years where it’s proceeding way faster than we thought it would and the industry is gearing up in terms of the speed it can deliver new varieties,” he said.

The funding committed by the Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba Wheat Commissions is part of a larger investment of $11.2 million which includes funding from Genome Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Western Grains Research Foundation and a number of industry partners. Funding for this project is being administered by Genome Prairie.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell