Development of Better Wheat Plants for Climate Change Conditions

Abstract

Wheat is a staple food of about 40% of the world population, and continuous improvement is vital to meet the increasing demands of the world population. Climate change, a serious concern of the present time, could strongly affect the wheat crop. To mitigate the climate change effects on wheat, scientists are developing wheat germplasm tolerant to the number of stresses and for this purpose different strategies have been adopted. In this chapter, the effect of climate change on wheat and strategies to develop a better wheat plant for climate change using advance breeding and molecular techniques have been discussed. Conventional breeding including hybridization, mutation breeding and shuttle breeding are some classical approaches which have led to the development of some high yielding wheat varieties but it’s a time taking task, the advancement in science has opened the new window for making a better crop for changing climate. Recent achievements in genetic engineering are expected to augment conventional breeding to further increase production. Advances in genome sequencing and molecular breeding have increased the rate of gene discovery. The use of advance genomic technique is a key to overcome the food security issue related to climate change.