INRAE and the Wheat Initiative

Abstract

At a time when heat waves, droughts and extreme weather events are becoming ever more frequent, it’s of paramount importance to have an initiative to explore how to make harvests more resilient. This is the main driver for the G20-fostered Wheat Initiative, launched in Paris in 2011 to reinforce synergies between members of the wheat research community and national and international research programmes targeted to increase food security, nutritional value and safety while taking into account societal demands for sustainable and resilient agricultural production systems. The INRAE research centre (at the time INRA) was one of the main actors involved in the launching of this initiative, together with the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) in Berlin and under the scientific lead of Prof Peter Langridge at the University of Adelaide in Australia.