Wheat experts hit the road in southwestern Russia this week

Wheat breeding, the traditional technique for improving yields or producing other desired characteristics, hasn’t gone out of fashion. It still has a role to play in ensuring food security, improving nutrition levels, and coping with a changing climate.

Researchers from some 20 countries this week will travel in and around Krasnodar in southwestern Russia, to learn about recent achievements in wheat breeding from the Krasnodar Agricultural Research Institute.

They will visit breeding nurseries, see early-generation seed multiplication and large-scale seed production fields for a full picture of the process.

“Without a doubt, wheat has a central place in our diet in Europe and especially in Central Asia,” said Hafiz Muminjanov, FAO plant production and protection officer. “Most of countries in the region, including Turkey, still grow wheat varieties developed at this Institute.”

According to FAO data, wheat is the second most-produced and in-demand cereal globally, after coarse grains (grains other than wheat or rice, used mainly as animal fodder).

As part of the seminar, Muminjanov will give an introduction to FAO activities on plant production and protection in the region.

This year’s traveling winter wheat seminar is the fifth in a series, dating back to 2007. The initiative is one element of the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP), a joint undertaking of the Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Center for Agricultural Research in The Dry Areas (ICARDA) – supported by FAO since 2011. The programme’s geographic focus is Central and West Asia.

Participants in the week-long seminar include plant breeders, agronomists, seed specialists, and representatives of seed farms. The seminar is an opportunity for them to exchange ideas and experience, and opens the door for possible future collaboration.

In past years, the traveling winter wheat seminar has taken place in Ukraine (2009), Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey (2011), Uzbekistan (2013), and Azerbaijan and Georgia (2015).

23 May, Moscow, Russian Federation