WSU scientists get grant to support research on "desert wheat"

Farm and Ranch May 25, 2010 Washington State University researchers working on developing wheat varieties that grow under severe drought conditions, so-called “desert wheat” have earned a 1.6 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant is part of the foundations’ Bread program, which stands for Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development.

The 1.6 million dollar grant will help fund WSU scientist Kulvinder Gill’s research on identifying genes that will increase wheat yields under drought stress. Currently used dwarfing genes helped double wheat production during the “Green Revolution” of the 1960’s but Gill says;

Gill: “The currently used dwarfing gene systems they compromise the plant‘s ability to deal with stressful conditions especially drought. We are developing alternate ways to dwarf the plant so that, that plant can withstand drought better than the currently used dwarf genes.”

Gill says the project is particularly important for the U.S. where 85 percent of the wheat is grown under limited water conditions.

Gill, who holds the Vogel Chair for Wheat Breeding Genetics at WSU, will lead a team of researchers at WSU, Purdue University, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the Punjab Agricultural University in India, COMSATS University in Pakistan and Pioneer Hi-Bred International.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.