A New Wheat Variety

 Durum wheat is used to make pasta, pizza crusts, and flatbreads such as pitta and chapatis, as well as for couscous, bulgur and pastry for desserts such as baklava.

A new drought-tolerant variety of durum wheat has been created as part of an international breeding programme to boost climate resilience in the food system by increasing crop diversity. The new wheat Jabal, which means “mountain” in Arabic, was developed by farmers and crop scientists by crossing a commercial durum wheat with a wild relative from an arid region of Syria, to create a new durum variety which can withstand drought.

Farmers in drought-affected areas planted numerous new durum wheat varieties between 2017 and 2021. Jabal stood out as it was able to flourish and produce grains while all commercial varieties of durum failed. Its distinctive black spikes also produced high yields of plump grains that made tasty bread, scientists said.

Last year, prices for durum wheat soared by 90% after widespread drought and unprecedented heatwaves in Canada, one of the world’s biggest grain producers, followed a few months later by record rainfall. Over the last century, Canadian farmers have increasingly relied on genetically similar high-yield wheat varieties, elbowing out crucial diversity.

. Plant breeders are increasingly looking to wild and other forgotten varieties stored in seed banks for useful genetic diversity, which was sidelined in favor of yield, uniformity and profits after the Green Revolution.

“Farmers have domesticated 7000 different crop species and have donated more than 2.1m plant varieties to international gene banks, but most of the profit from this effort has been captured by four or five international seed companies,” said Pat Mooney, an expert in agricultural diversity and biotechnology. “Jabal shows what can be accomplished with multilateral cooperation where farmers are at the centre of decision-making.”

Jabal: the new wheat scientists say can withstand extreme heat and drought | Food | The Guardian