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Sessions

Wheat Breeding for the Canadian Prairies

Wednesday January 22, 2020
9:10 am - 10:00 am
FCC Theatre

Speaker

The Eastern, Western and Northern Prairies vary in their growing conditions and hence the breeding programs focus on region specific issues such as biotic stress, abiotic stress and early maturing genotypes for the three regions respectively. The key challenges for Canadian wheat breeding programs are to pyramid resistance for major wheat diseases such as Fusarium head blight (FHB), and rusts. Orange Wheat Blossom Midge and Wheat Stem Sawfly are insect problems in the Canadian Prairies. To make significant genetic gains, combat the unpredictable climate and evolving pathogen pressure, breeding efforts must integrate traditional breeding tools with advances in genomics, phenomics, big data and artificial intelligence. The presentation will discuss some of the advances in wheat breeding for the Canadian Prairies.