tailieunhanh - Role of conventional plant breeding and biotechnology in future wheat production

The global wheat production by year 2020 could be increased by 40% provided there is a good integrated multidisciplinary wheat research program optimally funded by either public or private sectors. | Turk J Agric For 29 (2005) 105-111 © TÜB‹TAK Role of Conventional Plant Breeding and Biotechnology in Future Wheat Production Sanjaya RAJARAM* Director, Integrated Gene Management, ICARDA, Aleppo, . Box 5466 - SYRIA Received: Abstract: The global wheat production by year 2020 could be increased by 40% provided there is a good integrated multidisciplinary wheat research program optimally funded by either public or private sectors. More emphasis needs to be placed on: 1) Improving yield potential; 2) Durable disease resistance; 3) Increasing abiotic stress tolerance; 4) Adopting better conservation systems. There are roles for both conventional plant breeding and biotechnology supported by other disciplines to achieve this goal. Key Word: Biotechnology, Transgenic, Green Revolution, Durable, Marginal Environments. Introduction The developing countries are projected to increase their demand for cereal grains by about 80% between 1999 & 2020 (Pinstrup-Anderson and Pandya Lorch, 1997). According to Rosegrant et al. (1997) that over the next two decades global demand for wheat could rise by 40%. By 2020, it is expected that 67% of the world wheat consumption will occur in the developing countries. The average wheat production in recent years has been between 590-600 million metric tons. By the year 2020, this amount has to be increased to a total of approximately 840 million metric tons and 66% of this has to be produced in developing countries. The Asian continent (West, Central, South and East) is the largest and most important region of globe for wheat production. At least 104 million hectares are planted to all kinds of wheats in these regions. Relative to Asia, the African continent and South America grow only 8 million hectares each. The current global average yield of wheat is approximately tons per hectare. By 2020, this yield has to be increased to , if we are going to meet the global demand. This means an increase of 1700 kilograms per