Growers could be a step closer to having a salt tolerant wheat variety that can tolerate waterlogging.

Understanding the Australian context to salinity has been fundamental to Dr Tim Colmer of The University of Western Australia and his GRDC supported CRC for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity team's choice of breeding approach.

His team has chosen to introduce salt and waterlogging tolerance from crossing wheat with wild relatives, such as sea barley grass, which strongly expresses these characteristics.

"We've made rapid progress in demonstrating the potential of the proposed breeding approach and hence the prospect of delivering salinity tolerance in cultivars that will tolerate the particular stresses of land affected by dryland salinity in an Australian growing environment," Dr Colmer said.

"In Western Australia, where more than one million hectares of farm and public land is seriously affected by salt, a salt tolerant wheat would be particularly welcome."