macs meeting 2015
TRANSCRIPT
An international research partnership for wheat
improvement
MACS, Izmir Hélène Lucas, July 28, 2015
Overview
1. Ra%onale, organisa%on and governance 2. First achievements 3. The Wheat Ini%a%ve Strategic Research
Agenda
1. RATIONALE, ORGANISATION AND GOVERNANCE
An interna=onal research partnership for wheat improvement
v A framework to iden=fy synergies and facilitate collabora=ons for wheat improvement at the interna%onal level
v Created in 2011 following endorsement by G20 Agriculture Ministries to improve food security
v The world’s most important food crop v Provides 20% of all calories and 20% of
all protein in developing and developed countries
v Wheat produc=on has not always met demand in previous years
v Demand will increase by 60% in 2050/2010, while yields are stagna%ng and resources are declining
v Investment in wheat R&D is dispropor=onally low given the important of the crop
but
Importance of Wheat as calorie source (2006-‐2008)
Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3
Why Wheat?
v Vision: a vibrant global wheat research community sharing resources, capabili%es, data and ideas to improve wheat land produc%vity, quality and sustainable produc%on
v Mission: develop a global Strategic Research Agenda and support its implementa%on through coordinated ac=ons, knowledge and resource sharing and efficient investment
Wheat Ini=a=ve Vision and Mission
16 countries, 9 private companies, 2 CGIAR Centres
All countries and companies welcome!
Facilita=ng delivery by leveraging synergies and collabora=ons
Expert Working Groups Established
v Wheat Informa%on System v Gene%cs and genomics of
Durum wheat v Wheat breeding methods
and strategies v Wheat phenotyping to
support wheat improvement
v Wheat plant and crop modelling
Newly approved
v Control of wheat pathogens and pests
v Adapta%on of wheat to abio%c stress
v Global wheat germplasm conserva%on and use community
v Nutrient use efficiency v Improving wheat quality for
processing and health
Under development v Agronomy
2. FIRST ACHIEVEMENTS
v S%mula%ng debate and discussion § Na%onal strategies for wheat research
§ New na%onal wheat research networks
§ Funding calls dedicated to wheat
v Increasing communica%ons v Support for the wheat genome reference sequence
Building momentum
Access to wheat data
Wheat Informa=on System (h`p://whea=s.org/)
Bioinforma%cs experts from 7 countries & CIMMYT working together to develop the WheatIS
Innova=ons to boost yields
v Launch of the Interna%onal Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) in 2014
v 2 calls for proposals in 2015
From an Vision Document to a Strategic Research Agenda
2013 2015
3. THE WHEAT INITIATIVE STRATEGIC RESEARCH AGENDA
Game changers
v Fully assembled wheat genome sequence
v Open access to interna%onal data on wheat
v New breeding technologies v And many more
Challenges and aspira=ons
Many challenges… but many solu=ons!
v Research Needs v Priori%es v Ac%ons
Implementa=on of the SRA v Help define ini%al global priori%es v Implementa%on plans for each priority v Mechanisms to facilitate delivery
§ Alignment of strategies § Joint funding mechanisms § Public-‐private coopera%on frameworks § Interna%onal calls
v Global wheat research database
