Plant biologist Marcus Samuel has been working for more than a decade to improve the climate resilience of crops. While he has worked on canola, peas and other crops, perhaps the most elusive and exciting part of his work is the quest for drought-resistant wheat.University of Calgary plant biologist Marcus Samuel is pictured in this file photo. He's one of numerous scientists pursuing the development of a drought-resistant wheat strain.
Samuel is just one of many scientists in Canada and around the world pursuing the development of a drought-resistant wheat strain.Wheat is the most widely grown cereal grain, occupying 17 per cent of the total cultivated land in the world, according to the International Development Research Centre, a federal Crown corporation.
The Washington, D.C.-based World Resources Institute estimates that by 2040, nearly three-quarters of global wheat production will be under threat due to drought and climate change-induced water supply stress. And truly drought-tolerant wheat remains elusive, even as the need for it becomes more urgent due to climate change. Canada, for example, saw its total wheat production decline almost 40 per cent year-over-year in 2021 due to extreme heat and drought on the prairies.
The most dramatic of these was a 2020 announcement that Argentine scientists had developed the first genetically engineered wheat, which incorporates a drought-resistant gene from the sunflower plant.
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