Breeding for the highest yielding wheat varieties has reduced the plant's genetic diversity and made it vulnerable to climate change. This is the conclusion reached by scientists from Finland, who published the results of their research in the publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Productivity of key crops like wheat is the basis of food security. Today's agriculture, as we can see, is vulnerable to climatic factors, even despite the triumph of selection. And the point here, as we managed to find out, is the selection itself, which made the plants vulnerable to climate change,”say the authors of the scientific work, employees of the Lappeenranta University of Technology.
Scientists analyzed information on wheat yields from nine European countries and compared it with climate data. It turned out that since the early 2000s, wheat has become especially sensitive to climate fluctuations, and the point here, according to the researchers, is in selection.
“The main reason for the too strong vulnerability of modern wheat to climate change is the decline in genetic diversity, which was the result of selection. By trying to increase yields through breeding, people have made wheat highly susceptible to weather conditions, which is certainly extremely food-insecure. The solution to the problem can be a total revision of the selection methods used,”the scientists note.
Kolesnikov Andrey