Abstract only

The International Winter Wheat Program (IWWIP) is a joint program carried out bye the Ministry of Agriculture of Turkey, CIMMYT and ICARDA. The two main objectives of the program is to develop broadly adapted, disease resistant, high yielding winter wheat germplasm for the winter and facultative wheat growing areas in Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA), and to help facilitating germplasm exchange among the winter wheat breeding programs around the world. About 31 million hectares of the 103 million hectares of wheat in low-income countries is facultative on winter wheat, of which 16.5 million hectares are grown in Central and West Asia and North Africa, 13 million hectares in China, and 1 million hectares in South America, North Africa and North Korea. After China, Turkey is the 2nd largest winter wheat grower in least developed countries with 6.6 million ha, followed by Iran with 4 million ha. Traits of highest priority for the IWWIP breeding program are grain yield, quality, drought tolerance, yellow rust, common bunt, earliness, and resistance to nematodes and root and crown rot complex. Other important traits are winter hardiness, leaf rust and Zn -efficiency while tan spot, septoria tritici, powdery mildew and fusariurn spp are of local importance. Since 1994, twenty-seven varieties from the IWWIP program have been released in Afghanistan, Argentina, Georgia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Some of these have been released under different names in different countries demonstrating the broad adaptability of the IWWIP germplasm. For example, the cross YMH/TOB// MCD/3/LTRA was released in Afghanistan in 1994 Under the name PAMIR94, in Turkey in 1997 under the name KINACHI97, and in Uzbekistan in 2002 under the name DOSTLIK, and is included into registration trials in Iran. Most of these cultivars have been released after having been introduced through one of the international nurseries distributed through the IWWTP program, proving the great importance of international cooperation and germplasm exchange for crop development. The winter wheat program draws heavily on the winter x spring crosses. A major contribution to the winter wheat program is made through the spring wheat lines developed in Mexico, which are crossed with winter wheats. More than 75% of the IWWIP lines released or in registration trials are selected from crosses between winter and spring wheat lines and three way crosses (Winter/ Spring //Winter). Germplasm exchange and evaluation is facilitated through the yearly shipment of various international nurseries, to a number of collaborators around the world. The Facultative and Winter Wheat Observation Nursery (FAWWON) has served as the main vehicle for facilitating germplasm exchange among winter wheat programs. This nursery consists of lines developed by the IWWIP program and of cultivars submitted by National Programs, University Programs or Private Companies from countries in CWANA, Western and Eastern Europe, China, S- America and ÚSA. The Eurasian Winter Wheat Yield Nursery (EURAWWYN), previously WWEERYT (Winter Wheat East European Yield Trial) consists of 60 elite wheat cultivars ready for release and developed by breeding programs in Eastern Europe, Russia, Central and West Asia and the USA. The objectives of the network are to provide elite wheat cultivars for immediate release to weaker NARS, rapid seed multiplication of selected lines (3 kg seed for each entry is provided), and facilitate germplasm exchange of elite winter wheat lines among participating institutions. Other international nurseries prepared by the IWWIP program are WON-IR and WON-SA, and 'EYT- IR and 'EYT-SA consisting of elite lines from the IWWIP program targeted for either irrigated or rainfed conditions. Determining the relationship among diverse yield testing environments and their degree of association is valuable in a better targeting of germplasm to regions. International wheat yield nurseries with entries from different breeding programs and grown across regions show usually a very high Genotype x Environment Interaction and the selection of the best genotypes for a subset of locations requires detailed analysis. In the IWWIP program multiplicative models for multisite cultivar trials are being used for studying genotype x environment interaction (GEI) and for developing methods for clustering sites or cultivars into groups with statistically negligible crossover interaction.

Global Wheat Program

English

0409|AGRIS 0401|AL-Wheat Program

Juan Carlos Mendieta

INT0599|INT2410

CIMMYT Staff Publications Collection