The world wheat book : a history of wheat breeding. Vol. 3

The World Wheat Book

A History of Wheat Breeding

Volume 3

It is fifteen years since Volume 1 of The World Wheat Book was completed and five years since Volume 2 was published. The intervening years have seen many changes in the world economy, in agriculture in the countries where wheat is grown, and most of all developments in the technical approaches now being deployed in wheat breeding.

This third volume updates - and complements - the first two volumes by adding to the countries discussed, giving an update on associated technologies and giving an insight into the means to enhance production in a changing environment.

The opening chapters summarize the history of wheat growing and breeding, and the current status of breeding in the countries not covered in Volumes 1 and 2. The next set of chapters looks at new breeding strategies currently being deployed. The third set of chapters reviews some of the physiological challenges with the fourth set reviewing the contribution genetic resources from related species can make to meeting these. The fifth set of chapters explores the inter-relationship between man and wheat both from a historical point of view but also from a nutrition standpoint. Finally the last two chapters look at the ever-increasing challenges posed by competition with other crops for land usage as well as international trade.

As with Volumes 1 and 2, this third Volume is subtitled A History of Wheat Breeding. Together these three volumes, spanning twenty-five years of wheat research, record and discuss the continually evolving history of wheat breeding.

As stated by Jean-Yves Foucault, Chairman of the Board of Limagrain, in his Preface : « ...we have provided our fellows a synthesis of wheat genetic resources of the planet along with a history and a panorama of its production and its research ».