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Januarie 2018
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A new era in wheat breeding
T
he Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, at
the end of October last year, officially launched a research
platform at Stellenbosch University, to boost the develop-
ment of more sustainable wheat varieties. The programme,
referred to as the Wheat Breeding Platform, was initiated by the pri-
vate and public sector in 2014, as part of a greater strategy aimed at
reviving the wheat industry and in effect enhancing food security in
the country.
Dr Marinda Visser (manager: Research and Policy Centre, Grain SA)
explained that the wheat industry had been classified as an indus-
try in distress in 2014, due to the high risks and small margins as-
sociated with production. The area under production declined from
1 400 000 ha to 482 150 ha between 1990 and 2016, resulting in
production failing to keep up with demand, which increased from
2 000 000 tons to about 3 200 000 tons over the same period.
The shortfall in local demand has led to South Africa becoming
more and more dependent on wheat imports, to the extent that im-
ports currently accounts for roughly half the domestic consump-
tion. Imports during the 2014/2015 season, because of the drought,
reached a record high of 62% of local consumption.
‘The industry, during various workshops and consultations with
various stakeholders, in 2014 identified the development of varieties
with the ability to produce higher yields as one method to overcome
the crisis,’ Dr Visser said.
Mr Ben Durham, chief director: Bio-innovation at the Department
of Science and Technology, said wheat cultivar development had
been hugely distorted, as the primary focus over the past 20 years
had been on the development of varieties with specific milling and
baking qualities. ‘The Wheat Breeding Platform will address this dis-
tortion, by shifting the research focus to the development of more
resilient and higher yielding varieties,’ he said.
Dr Visser said that this ‘focus on quality’ has resulted in South Afri-
cans producing wheat that is comparable with the best in the world.
Processors generally, therefore, use South African supplies to en-
hance the quality of imported supplies.
The problem with the high quality cultivars is that gains in attributes
associated with quality, is negatively correlated with yield. Yield per
hectare in South Africa has therefore remained relatively low, fluctu-
ating between 2,56 t/ha and 3,7 t/ha over the past ten years, depend-
ing on climatic conditions, according to the National Crop Estimates
Committee.
Mr Willem Botes (research leader at Stellenbosch University’s Plant
Breeding Laboratory) pointed out that there has been reports of a
producer in New Zealand producing 16,79 tons/ha: ‘We are not
aiming to go the same route, as people often overlook the fact that
this wheat was aimed at the feed market. With the Wheat Breeding
Platform, the aim is to develop varieties that have greater tolerance
RELEVANT
GLENNEIS KRIEL,
SA Graan/Grain
contributor
1: Attending the official launch of the Wheat Breeding Platform
were: Dr Phil Mjwara (director general of the Department of
Science and Technology), Darryl Jacobs (deputy director general
of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture), Minister Naledi
Pandor, Willem Botes, Jannie de Villiers (CEO of Grain SA) and
Prof Eugene Cloete (vice rector for Research, Innovation and
Postgraduate Studies at Stellenbosch University).
2: Dr Marinda Visser, Prof Louise Warnich (Stellenbosch
University), Dr Renée Prins (director of CenGen), Marizanne Horn
(Sensako) and Dr Maneshree Jugmohan-Naidu (director of
Agricultural Biotechnology at the Department of Science
and Technology).
3: Attendees at the Wheat Breeding Platform include Grain SA,
the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Department
of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the ARC, Stellenbosch
University and all the local wheat breeding programmes.
Front: Darryl Jacobs, Marizanne Horn, Dr Marinda Visser,
Dr Maneshree Jugmohan-Naidu, Dr Nthabiseng Motete (group
executive: Crop Sciences, ARC) and Dr Toi Tsilo (senior
research manager, ARC-Small Grain). Back: Willem Botes,
Jannie de Villiers, Victor Mongoato (Grain SA), Ben Durham
and Andries Theron (Grain SA).
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