Need for better wheat yields cited at congressional hearing

Farm and Ranch July 8, 2011 Most of the U.S. corn, soybean and cotton crops are comprised of biotech varieties, but not wheat. There is as yet no commercial modern biotech wheat and wheat yields have not improved at the same rate as those biotech crops. One obstacle has been the opposition to biotech wheat by some overseas buyers. But at a recent Senate hearing Chuck Connor with the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives told lawmakers;

Connor: “Twenty percent of the calories consumed by the human race on this planet are derived from wheat. The U.N. estimates that the world population will reach 9.3 billion people by 2050. Farmers will need to produce more using the same amount of land, less energy, and certainly fewer water resources. Innovation will be the key to our ability to improve wheat production.”

Innovation including biotechnology.

In a related story, Agriculture Ministers from the G20 nations meeting recently in Paris issued a statement supporting the launch of an international research initiative for wheat improvement. The primary objectives of this new initiative would be to provide a forum to encourage collaboration among major wheat programs, public and private; to facilitate open communication and exchange of germless and data under existing agreements and to press the financial needs of the wheat research community to key funding sources.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.