June 18, 2012

UK to double wheat production in 20 years

A programme to more than double the potential wheat yields in the country to 20 tonnes per hectare (2.47 acres) within two decades had been started by UK plant researchers.

The work by Rothamsted Research, founded as an agricultural-research station in 1843, will be funded by the government-financed Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the council wrote in an online statement dated June 13. UK farmers on average harvest nine tonnes of wheat per hectare, while the average global yield is three tonnes, it said.

Rothamsted has faced protests for testing wheat genetically modified to repel aphids, a grain pest. An intruder broke into the researcher's facilities on May 20 and caused property damage in an attempt to disrupt the experiment, the researcher reported last month.

"Wheat is the world's number one staple crop and has not benefited from the attention afforded to corn and soy in recent years," Martin Parry, a professor who heads the so- called 20:20 Wheat programme, was cited as saying.

Every tonne-per-hectare yield increase for wheat is estimated to create GBP318 million (US$494 million) in value for UK farmers at the farm gate level, the council said.

The programme will seek to boost wheat yields through genetic improvement, more efficient photosynthesis and use of nutrients, as well as changes to the wheat plant's canopy and root structure, according to the statement.

Wheat provides about a fifth of human calories, according to the council. The rate of growth in wheat yields has declined since 1980, it said.