Wheat in the Third World

Many developing countries have adopted new wheat production techniques to expand food supplies, but opportunities for raising output further and improving farmers’ livelihoods remain great. In this book, three internationally recognized experts associated with the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) address decision makers in developing countries and international agencies, providing essential information about the prospects for increasing wheat productivity. The authors examine the characteristics of the wheat plant as a crop and as a food, explore recent scientific findings related to producing and handling the crop and suggest important areas for future research. They also look at specific wheat production problems and potentials in eight countries and propose means of organizing and operating an effective national wheat program. The book closes with a forecast of the outlook for food, wheat, and population to the end of the century.

Haldore Hanson is director general emeritus of the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT), Mexico. He has also been a representative both of the Ford Foundation in Nigeria and Pakistan, and of the Development Resources Corporation in Iran, and has served as economic advisor to the prime minister of Burma. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, Dr. Norman E.- Borlaug is consultant on wheat production problems to CIMMYT and to many governments, as well as associate director of agricultural sciences for the Rockefeller Foundation. He has written over 200 articles on agricultural research and production. The late Dr. R. Glenn Anderson was serving as director of the International Wheat Program at CIMMYT at the time of his death. In the past, he had been wheat breeder and joint coordinator of the Rockefeller Foundation Indian Agricultural Program and wheat geneticist and senior cerealist for the Canadian Department of Agriculture.