More than half of the world s population will depend on rice as their principal food source in 30 years. Rice production must increase by more than 40 percent from the present production to avoid a rice shortage. But available land for cultivation is expected to decrease because of erosion, desertification, salinization, and rapidly increasing urbanization. Researchers have been able to modify wheat, once mostly restricted to temperate and subtropical zones, to make it productive even in hot climates. One main reason for growing wheat is it requires less water than rice.
Wheat is also a cash crop that has relatively few natural insect enemies.
Thanks to years of intensive plant breeding work, modern wheats now have strong built-in resistance to major diseases. That means poor farmers in developing countries are assured of stable yields and can more easily adapt pest management procedures that make maximum use of biological control measures, minimizing chemical use. All of this data is converted into maps that clearly delineate climatic conditions, no matter how remote an area of land may be, in a user-friendly computer program that agronomists can use to assist even the poorest farmers. The Atlas will help identify the agro-climatic conditions appropriate for specific crops. The Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research is a global agricultural research network that works to promote food security, poverty eradication and the sound management of natural resources in the developing world.