CURRENT STATUS OF WHEAT BREEDING IN THE DEVELOPING REGIONS

摘要

Wheat is one among the major cereal crops such as rice, maize, barley etc., which is produced and utilized in not only the developed regions but also in the developing regions. The developing regions under unfavorable environmental conditions produceless than half of the world quantity, but are supplied with more than half. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT, headquartered in Mexico), founded in 1966 with the base of collaborative research program of the Mexican Governmentand the Rockefeller Foundation, has been implementing research and training on wheat production for the developing regions. Wheat varieties developed from the CIMMYT breeding program had a significant contribution in increasing wheat production in the developing countries with low latitude, such as Mexico, India, Egypt etc., and resulted in the Green Evolution in the 1970's. However, there is a more urgent demand to ensure the stable and sustainable wheat production for meeting the rapid increase of population in the developing regions (Bonjean and Angus 2001). In this paper, current status of wheat breeding for increasing and stabilizing wheat production in the developing regions is summarized.