International Winter Wheat Improvement Program: serving global breeding community

Abstract

International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (www.iwwip.org) was established in 1986 as a cooperative project between the Government of Turkey and CIMMYT. The main objective was development of winter and facultative wheat germplasm for the region of Central and West Asia and facilitation of global germplasm exchange. ICARDA joined the program in 1991. The breeding program in Turkey is incorporated into public breeding framework of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and utilizes 8-10 sites with variable environments, abiotic and biotic stresses. The germplasm developed by IWWIP is distributed globally to more than 100 cooperators in more than 50 countries through international nurseries: Facultative and Winter Wheat Observation Nursery (FAWWON) and International Winter Wheat Yield Trial (IWWYT). Important part of IWWIP activities is evaluation and distribution of the germplasm submitted by cooperators from other countries facilitating exchange of material. More than 65 varieties originating from IWWIP germplasm have been released and cultivated on area exceeding 2.5 mln ha. In addition to breeding activities IWWIP is involved in capacity building though training and biannual winter wheat travelling seminars conducted in different countries. Research is focused on abiotic and biotic stresses and recently published papers are listed in references. In 2009-2014 IWWIP conducted national inventory of wheat landraces resulting in conservation and characterization of material collected from more than 1500 farmers from 50 provinces of the country.