Funding Partners: Alberta Grains
Project Description
This project supports continued research and development activities of the Canadian Western Hard Red Spring (CWRS) wheat breeding program at the University of Alberta. We have released nine CWRS cultivars and educated a large number of scientists serving the Canadian agricultural system over the last five years. The objectives of this project are to continue development of new CWRS cultivars for Alberta, and to educate graduate students in this field for the Albertan wheat farming community.
Objectives:
The overall objectives of this research are to develop Canadian Western Hard Red Spring cultivars selected for growth in Alberta, and to educate under-graduate and post-graduate students in this field for the Alberta industry.
- New cultivars and germplasm of CWRS wheat meeting the market quality needs of CWRS wheat and are adapted to the diverse production area of Alberta. To identify and develop CWRS wheat cultivars offering farmers agronomically superior cultivars; to identify and develop new cultivars of CWRS wheat offering food manufacturers and consumers greater nutrition; ensuring wheat grown by Alberta’s producers is competitive in world grain markets.
- New cultivars and germplasm developed with enhanced earliness, straw strength, bread making qualities, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and favorable functional properties.
- Improved understanding of the genetics of earliness, straw strength, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, bread making qualities, functional properties and genotype by environment interaction for wheat grown in Alberta.
- The education and training of graduate, post-graduate students and undergraduate summer students in the areas of plant breeding and agronomy.