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Grains Council of Australia's Grains Week 2006: New wheat cultivars to meet yield challenge
April 5, 2006 
The Grains Council of Australia's Grains Week program will highlight the most important domestic and international issues faced by the grains industry.

Researchers will apply modern technology to conventional wheat breeding methods to meet yield challenges threatening Australia’s grains industry.

CSIRO Plant Industry’s Dr Richard Richards says it is anticipated that the development of new wheat varieties would increase annual yield by two per cent, thereby upholding current profitability levels.

He says collaborative research efforts led by the CSIRO and Australia’s Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC) would create new wheat cultivars through the application of physiology and biotechnology to traditional breeding methods.

'While conventional breeding methods will remain the cornerstone of plant improvement in Australia’s wheat industry, new varieties will evolve as a result of research to enhance grain yield and the genetic protection against diseases while retaining or improving grain quality,' Dr Richards says.

In other approaches, contemporary breeding methods using molecular and physiological tools would produce new wheat varieties that would be available to farmers more rapidly than before.

New wheat genetic material containing yield enhancing traits from overseas sources is also being introduced into Australia and will be widely used in breeding programs to overcome genetic weaknesses and abiotic limitations including environmental conditions.

Dr Richards will discuss breeding options to increase Australian wheat yields at the Grains Week 2006 Research Symposium in Canberra on April 6.

He will discuss:

  • conventional and contemporary wheat breeding methods;
  • key national and regional players in the wheat breeding contest; and
  • new yield enhancing traits that will be introduced into improved wheat varieties.
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