Cereal grain production needs to double in the next 50 years

The United Nations and the international wheat breeding community would like wheat yield to reach 4 tons per hectares or about 60 bushels an acre by 2020.

“China, Mexico, and Europe are the only countries above that 60 bushel per acre level right now,” Rollie Sears, senior development manager at AgriPro-Coker, said.

Sears and Hans-Joachim Braun, director of the Global Wheat Program at CIMMYT, an international research center in Mexico, made presentations at Commodity Classic on 21st Century wheat research.

“The issue for the next several years is global food security,” Braun said. “World cereal grain production must double in the next 50 years.”

Right now all of the major wheat producing areas including North America, Argentina, Australia, and Kazakhstan all have very low yields. Equal to or below the world average, so there is plenty of room for improvement.

“But it will require a lot of research,” Braun said. “The worldwide average in 2006 was 42 bushels per acre and that needs to increase to 56 bushels per acre by 2025. The challenge is tremendous.”

High Plains / Midwest Ag Journal