3 - The world wheat book

It is fifteen years since Volume 1 of The World Wheat Book was completed
and five years since Volume 2 was published. The intervening years have
seen many changes in the world economy, in agriculture in the countries
where wheat is grown, and most of all developments in the technical
approaches now being deployed in wheat breeding.This third volume
updates – and complements – the first two volumes by adding to the
countries discussed, giving an update on associated technologies and
giving an insight into the means to enhance production in a changing
environment.The opening chapters summarize the history of wheat
growing and breeding, and the current status of breeding in the countries
not covered in Volumes 1 and 2. The next set of chapters looks at new
breeding strategies currently being deployed. The third set of chapters
reviews some of the physiological challenges with the fourth set reviewing
the contribution genetic resources from related species can make to
meeting these. The fifth set of chapters explores the inter-relationship
between man and wheat both from a historical point of view but also from a
nutrition standpoint. Finally the last two chapters look at the
ever-increasing challenges posed by competition with other crops for land
usage as well as international trade.As with Volumes 1 and 2, this
third Volume is subtitled A History of Wheat Breeding.
Together these three volumes, spanning twenty-five years of wheat
research, record and discuss the continually evolving history of wheat
breeding.As stated by Jean-Yves Foucault, Chairman of the Board of
Limagrain, in his Preface: “…we have provided our fellows a
synthesis of wheat genetic resources of the planet along with a history
and a panorama of its production and its research”