Agriculture Ministers from the G20 group of nations have adopted the International Research Initiative for Wheat Improvement (IRIWI)
The historic agreement between the Ministers of Agriculture of the G20 in Paris underlines the importance of increasing world agricultural production, in particular that of wheat, to resolve the urgent challenge of sustainably providing enough safe, nutritious and affordable food for a growing global population. This initiative will aim to reinforce cooperation and coordination between national and international bread and durum wheat research programmes. It will support improvements in food security, nutritional value and safety while taking into account societal demands for sustainable and resilient agricultural production systems able to adapt to anticipated climate change. Coordination activity by IRIWI in its first four years will be supported by BBSRC, INRA and CIMMYT. IRIWI itself is supported by research and funding organisations from 10 countries which have, or intend to develop, national programmes to improve wheat germplasm. The number of partner countries is expected to increase and the coordination will ensure that information from these national programmes is available for application globally.
For more information on the initiative and to participate to it, please contact Hélène Lucas at Helene.Lucas@versailles.inra.fr