September 1997
U.S. wheat industry allies on research goals
by Tracy Sayler
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Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.
That's the overwhelming conclusion of the National Association of Wheat Growers summer conference held this year in Portland, where the U.S. wheat chain was indeed represented well, perhaps better than any previous NAWG meeting. Joining wheat producers at the NAWG summer meeting were wheat researchers, millers, and baking industry representatives from across the country.
Along with a commitment to an industry alliance on wheat research projects, several national research priorities were set, including fusarium head blight or scab, and the formation of a national wheat research web site. Also, wheat genomics, a new technique that allows crop scientists to map or identify crop genes. Thus, during crop breeding, a beneficial trait such as scab resistance may be isolated and transferred into a new variety; or an undesirable trait such as weak straw strength left behind.
The NAWG and wheat researchers who comprise the Wheat Industry Resource Committee also agreed to include a wheat research reporting session at the NAWG Convention next January in San Diego. This integrated session will include research pertinent to producers, millers and bakers.
NO FOOD, NO PEACE, SAYS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER
(MN Wheat Council Vice Chair Bruce Hamnes (right) and Henry Bahn, National Program Leader with USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education & Extension Service in Washington, D.C., (middle) in a discussion with Dr. Norman Borlaug (left).
Dr. Norman Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in the development of high yielding, semi-dwarf wheat that India and Pakistan used to avert mass starvation (earning Borlaug the title of "Father of The Green Revolution"), keynoted the NAWG summer conference.
Borlaug used his age to illustrate the magnitude of world population growth. He said that there were 1.6 billion people in the world when he was born, 83 years ago. Now the population is at 5.8 billion, with about another billion being added every decade. "That's the problem you, your children and your grandchildren will be dealing with ahead. You don't build peace when people have empty stomachs."
Borlaug emphasized that available land area will not expand. Thus, for the world's population (which he said will be about 8.5 billion in 2020) to be fed and political unrest avoided, the world will need to farm existing land better, and science and technology applied correctly.
He used the Nobel Peace Prize as an example of how a stable food supply leads to the greater goal of world peace. The prize recognizes outstanding achievements in several categories, including physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace, but not agriculture.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of "Black '47," the year of the famine's worst devastation. All told, the 1845-1847 famine, triggered by a potato blight that decimated what was then Ireland's primary food supply, killed or forced into exile one-quarter of the country's 8 million residents. Borlaug explained that the Irish Potato Famine had indirect positive effects: the huge migration out of western Europe led to greater industrialization and better farming methods globally. "When Alfred Nobel in 1895 wrote out his will that established the prize for his name, there were no food problems anymore, and no need for a prize for food or agriculture." Borlaug said his research work helped feed Third World Countries, which abated the potential for political unrest. That's why it's not so unusual that a wheat breeder received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Humankind was only able to go beyond prehistoric hunting and gathering after an agricultural system led to stable food supplies, enabling people to specialize in other skills. "That's the way the first civilization came to be. Stop and think about that," Borlaug said.
RESEARCH MAY RE-DEFINE WHEAT AS HIGHER VALUE
The U.S. wheat industry needs to do a better job communicating its value to North American agriculture if it expects to garner the research and development dollars necessary to meet future food demands, said Hans Loose, a senior executive with BASF Ag Products, at the meeting.
"Wheat doesn't command the kind of high-value investment and attention of other U.S. crops, and the industry is suffering a technological drought because of it." Loose cited the lack of new wheat varieties from seed companies and fewer crop protection products as indications of a technological standstill.
Loose said that "wheat is able to deliver the volumes necessary to meet future food demands because it's very adaptable in production and provides solid foundation for good nutrition." He referred to statistics that estimate by 2030 there could be a shortage of 500 million tons of grain.
European producers may have economic and production advantages with better climate and governmental subsidies, Loose said. But with all-around collaboration, the U.S. can raise wheat production to a higher level of efficiency and value.
"I'd like to see the U.S. wheat market setting the international standards, like we do with other crops," he said. "Working together we can redefine wheat as a high-value crop, worthy of significant R&D investments and worthy of the ag community's attention."
NAWG RELEASES STUDY ON WHEAT DISEASES
The NAWG released a study at the summer conference in which Virginia-based Promar International assessed the economic impact of Karnal bunt, TCK smut, and scab.
The study, funded in part by the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers and the Minnesota Wheat Research and Promotion Council, concluded that while significant losses result from all three diseases, losses associated with scab are the largest by far, exceeding $1 billion in the year studied (1993), and constitute a serious threat to the future of the wheat industry in areas vulnerable to the disease.
Most of the losses from Karnal bunt (close to $73 million since early 1996, with federal expenditures on administering the quarantine and conducting a national Karnal bunt survey accounting for close to 80% of the total) and TCK smut (about $36 million annually from lost export opportunities) resulted from regulatory actions rather than the diseases, the study said, suggesting that ultimate solutions for those problems are dependent on policy changes, not production research.
But the study warned that, if not controlled, diseases like scab will probably have major structural effects on the U.S. wheat industry, resulting in reduced output and a smaller share of the world market. The study also noted that consumers and users of wheat products have at least as much at stake from reducing or eliminating the costs associated with wheat diseases as do producers.n