May 5, 2015
Source: CIMMYT Blog
by Krishna Dev Joshi, Attiq Ur Rehman, Katelyn Roett, Mike Listman and Roberto Javier Peña
Participants of Wheat Grain Quality Training at Ayub Agricultural Research Institute Faislabad, Pakistan learning hands-on skills for grain quality analysis. Photo by Muhammad Shebaz, AARI, Faisalabad, Pakistan.To meet the rapidly-evolving preferences of Pakistan consumers, more of whom now live in cities and are increasingly choosing fast food and Western-style loaf bread, wheat breeders need to begin selecting varieties that satisfy the required grain quality attributes, in addition to high yields and disease resistance.
Pakistanis eat more than 120 kilograms of wheat per year on average and obtain over 70 percent of their calories from the crop, putting the country among the world’s top wheat consumers.
“Better quality wheat could improve the nutrition and health of millions of Pakistanis,” says Roberto Javier Peña, CIMMYT wheat quality consultant, who recently led the country’s first training courses on the subject in Islamabad and Faisalabad. The first course was held at the Food Science and Product Development Laboratory, National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, from 6 to 8 April, and drew 16 cereal chemist and food technologists from laboratories at NARC-Islamabad, the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) at Faisalabad, the University of Agriculture-Faisalabad and the Grain Quality Laboratory at Karachi.
“In Pakistan, whose traditional staple is flatbreads, grain quality is nearly synonymous with the percentage of grain protein but wheat varieties are rarely tested for quality before their release. Added to this, consumer preferences are diversifying from whole grain to lower extraction flour and from flat bread to loaf bread.”
According to Peña, meeting shifting consumer demands will require more rigorous and systematic grain quality selection and applying it earlier in the breeding process than just prior to a variety’s release, as has been the case to date.
Participants of Wheat Grain Quality Training posting for group photo at Ayub Agricultural Research Institute Faislabad, Pakistan. Photo by Muhammad Shebaz, AARI, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
A New Generation of Scientists to Lead the Way
A related event at AARI during 9-11 April brought together 36 wheat breeders, cereal chemists, food technologists, agronomists, socioeconomists and research managers for training that combined conceptual and theoretical practices, hands-on skills and open discussions on grain quality and the use of other selection parameters.
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