b'S T R A T E G Y A featured segment designed to help you in the realm of retail seed sales. Upping Our Global Wheat GameWhile wheat is considered a more challenging crop, breeders around the world are working to improve wheats genetic potential.Joe Funk GLOBALLY, WHEATis have access to diverse germ-a gold-medal crop. It isplasm from other regions. grown on more land than anyPublic programs are also other crop. But in terms oftraining new plant breeders plant breeding and geneticin addition to doing basic improvement, wheat is a step- research work. child. Genetic improvementsAllan Fritz, a wheat breeder for wheat have lagged behindat Kansas State University corn and other major crops.(K-State), sees public breed-Since 1955, U.S. averageing programs as playing a vital wheat yields have increasedrole in maintaining a good mix at a rate of 0.39 bushels perof novel germplasm. acre per year, while improvedWe do a lot of work with genetics and crop productionwild relatives, and we do not techniques have increasedexpect to have a commercial corn yields at a fairly constantproduct within at least five to annual 1.9 bushels per acre10 years, he says. These are per year.things we want to do because The lack of geneticwe think they are useful in the improvement is not for lackAllan Fritz is a wheat breeder at Kansas State University.long haul for bringing in new of trying. Compared to corn,sources of variation. This is a wheat is a challenging cropplant breeding, says Andrewgood role for public programs for plant breeders. Wheat isGreen, assistant professor andtance of public breedingto play. We do variety devel-a self-pollinating crop thathard spring wheat breeder atprograms. Wheat is still beingopment, but we also want to requires tedious hand pol- North Dakota State Universitywidely grown not only in themaintain a component of our linations to make the crosses(NDSU). Even in statesUnited States, but globallyprogram that is more germ-needed to create new varie- where wheat acres are notin every region where cropsplasm development-oriented, ties. Most new corn hybridsdominated by public varie- are being grown. The publicsomething private industry are being developed byties, the germplasm and basicprograms all have differentwould be less likely to pursue. private breeding programsresearch from public pro- focuses on the pathogen andHe also sees the public with the resources to makegrams that goes into privatequality problems that havesector playing an impor-seemingly unlimited crossvarieties are still important.local importance. Togethertant role in training the next pollinations. Wheat breedingWhile some of the wheatthese programs contributegeneration of plant breeders. programs have been more inbreeding positions at publicto a knowledge base thatHe believes it is better for the the domain of public univer- institutions have taken moreis used by wheat breedersindustry if students are trained sity programs. of a quantitative genetics oreverywhere. As the worldin a program doing the same genomics focus, I can thinkgets smaller and produc- sort of things they will be The Value of Public Wheatof no positions that are goingtion regions more and moredoing in the real world. They Breeding Programs unfilled. Wheat breeding isconnected, growers arewill be familiar with the tech-Public breeding for wheatstill being prioritized. encountering novel pests andniques and tools and practical and other cereals is at theThere are several reasonsdiseases. It is beneficial foraspects of a breeding pro-forefront of what we do infor sustaining the impor- breeders at a public facility togram. He says this is a critical 52/ SEEDWORLD.COMINTERNATIONAL EDITION 2020'