Over 3.5 million dollars in funding was announced yesterday for a new wheat genomic project which is expected to speed up research and improve genetic gain.

Sask Wheat, the Western Grains Research Foundation and the Alberta Wheat Commission are all collaborating on the project which will play an important role in future research.
 
Sask Wheat Chair Bill Gehl sees tremendous benefit in the project.

"Western Canada is a very big area and sometime that grows in the Red River district is not necessarily good in the Peace River district. And that can be said right across Saskatchewan, as well. So, we need to have have multiple things available for multiple scenarios of farming in Western Canada," Gehl said.

Wheat is one of the world’s most fundamental food crops, Gehl says production needs to increase to meet growing global demands.

Dr. Curtis Pozniak of the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre and Dr. Andrew Sharpe of the National Research Council Canada are heading up the project and will combine the expertise of genomic researchers and wheat breeders to improve genetic gain.