Geneticists Call for New Techniques to Advance Wheat Production

Researchers Robert Graybosch and James Peterson from the Oregon State University examined the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data on wheat yield in the Great Plain region and found out that the yield increase is slowing. They said that the data "suggests a plateau has been reached." Thus, they suggest that there is a need for the use of available production techniques on a wider scale to increase the wheat productivity.

"Use of these more productive areas for wheat production could, temporarily at least, continue to meet world demands for wheat. In the long term, however, effective strategies to increase the genetic gain for wheat grain yield must be identified," Graybosch and Peterson wrote in their paper published in the Crop Science Society of America. They concluded that "further improvement in the genetic potential for grain yield awaits some new technological or biological advance."

For more details, visit https://www.crops.org/publications/cs/abstracts/50/5/1882.