ICARDA and CIMMYT: harnessing the power of partnership in wheat improvement

In the dry agroecologies of the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, especially in the cold highland areas, rural farming communities depend on wheat for food and income. These communities face formidable obstacles. The wheat crop is vulnerable to diseases and pests, and farmers are forced to cope with the challenges of irregular and variable rainfall, a short growing season, and few prospects for agricultural diversification. As a result, poverty and hunger prevail in these areas. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) share a commitment to work together to help these communities through wheat improvement research. The approach is to complement the efforts of national agricultural research systems (NARS) across CWANA with the best of ICARDA's regional and CIMMYT's global wheat research programs. This report presents selected achievements in CWANA of our two centers, the Government of Turkey (which graciously hosts the Turkey/CIMMYT/ICARDA program for winter wheat), and our many other partners. Our work in CWANA goes beyond exchanging seed and information to addressing major regional issues such as the precarious livelihoods of winter wheat producers and options for improvement; the urgent need to prevent disease epidemics in an environmentally responsible way; the complex soil health problems that reduce wheat yields; and the nonchemical control of Sunn pest, an insect that drains the nutritional and economic value out of wheat. The research described here would not have been possible without the combined skills and resources of a large number of our partner organizations.

8 pages