Association Perspectives

Is There a Future For Biotech Wheat?

In September 2009, “The Case for Biotech Wheat” was published, supported by the National Association of Wheat Growers, U.S. Wheat Associates, North American Millers’ Association, Independent Bakers Association and the Wheat Foods Council. This paper was a follow up to issues raised in the 2006 publication “Addressing the Competitive Crisis in Wheat” which called for wheat industry sectors to work together to address challenges such as slow domestic growth, slower yield growth compared to other crops, and relatively poor net margins for producers. A series of Wheat Summit meetings followed, leading to recommendations on farm policy, transportation and infrastructure, research, and also established a working group to explore and understand the issues biotechnology commercialization would present to the industry.

For farmers, there are many advantages to growing wheat, but ultimately it is economics that determines what crops are planted on a farm. Wheat provides 20 percent of the world’s calories, and the United States is the world’s largest wheat exporter, so keeping wheat a competitive crop should be a priority for everyone. Wheat users have several reasons to be concerned about declining wheat acres. First on the list is the potential for smaller supplies of wheat for those end users. Smaller production regions leave the U.S. wheat crop more vulnerable to weather or plant disease problems. To the extent that wheat production is pushed onto marginal acres, crop failures become more likely.

Another concern is vulnerability to new threats, such as Ug99, an emerging wheat stem rust pathogen. At the present time, 75% of current varieties in the U.S. are susceptible to Ug99. If new resistance genes cannot be found within the wheat genome, it is likely that a biotechnology solution will be necessary to provide strong and durable resistance. Ug99 is not the only challenge to wheat production, and access to new technology is essential to produce sufficient and safe food for a growing world population on a finite amount of land.

A weakened wheat industry infrastructure only compounds the problem of wheat competitiveness. Future investment and innovation in the wheat industry is suffering due to lack of access to the latest technology. Unless wheat production is a growing and ongoing concern, companies developing new equipment and products will focus their primary development efforts on crops with larger markets.

Informal polls of various wheat industry sectors indicated that abiotic stress tolerance, particularly drought tolerance, was a major priority when considering which biotechnology traits are most desired. Other priority traits of interest included tolerance of other abiotic stress (heat, cold, freeze), increased yields, nutrient use efficiency (particularly nitrogen) and resistance to plant diseases like stem rust, stripe rust, head blight, and others. Lower on the list, but still important include specific end-use or nutritional properties and herbicide tolerance.

It is important to note that there will be no silver bullets in biotech wheat. No single technology can deliver in a promise to make a crop competitive, but it is believed the biotechnology can make a significant contribution to wheat profitability.

The full story, “The Case for Biotech Wheat” can be found on the National Association of Wheat Growers website, www.wheatworld.org.AG CONSULTINGSINCE 19 9WWW.CE TROL.COM 12/28/07