Breaking wheat yield barriers requires integrated efforts in developing countries
2015
Saeed Rauf, Maria Zaharieva, Marilyn L Warburton, ZHANG Ping-zhi, Abdullah M AL-Sadi, Farghama Khalil, Marcin Kozak, Sultan A Tariq (1Department of Plant Breeding Genetics, University College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan 2National Agricultural University La Molina (UNALM), Lima 12, Peru 3USDA ARS Corn Host Plant Resistance Research Unit, P.O. Box 9555, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA 4Crop Research Institute, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, P.R.China 5Department of Crop Science, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 34, AlKhoud 123,Oman 6Department of Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SSGW, Warsaw 02-766, Poland 7Social Sciences Research Institute, National Agriculture Research Council, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan)
Most yield progress obtained through the so called Green Revolution, particularly in the irrigated areas of Asia, has reached a limit, and major resistance genes are quickly overcome by the appearance of new strains of disease causing organisms. New plant stresses due to a changing environment are difficult to breed for as quickly as the changes occur. There is consequently a continual need for new research programs and breeding strategies aimed at improving yield potential, abiotic stress tolerance and resistance to new, major pests and diseases. Recent advances in plant breeding encompass novel methods of expanding genetic variability and selecting for recombinants, including the development of synthetic hexaploid, hybrid and transgenic wheats. In addition, the use of molecular approaches such as quantitative trait locus (QTL) and association mapping may increase the possibility of directly selecting positive chromosomal regions linked with natural variation for grain yield and stress resistance. The present article reviews the potential contribution of these new approaches and tools to the improvement of wheat yield in farmer’s fields, with a special emphasis on the Asian countries, which are major wheat producers, and contain the highest concentration of resource-poor wheat farmers.
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