Research Highlights of the CIMMYT Wheat Program 1999-2000

A New Approach to Triticale Improvement
A.R. Hede
Humankind faces an unprecedented challenge in
the next century: the need to more than double the
world’s food supply in response to rising
populations and increased incomes. The global
demand for cereals will grow dramatically due two
factors: an increase in direct consumption demand
for grain, as well as increased demand for animal
feed (to satisfy, in turn, a growing demand for meat
products). The way forward will be through
significantly increasing the yield potential of the
world’s major crops, and in some cases developing
highly productive new crops that fit into specific
agricultural niches.
One of the most promising crops in the latter
category is triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack), a
man-made cross between wheat and rye. Triticale
combines many of the best qualities of both its
parents: the robustness of rye (adaptability to
marginal soils, drought tolerance, winter hardiness,
disease resistance, and low input requirements
relative to wheat) and wheat’s end-use qualities
(such as its flavor and suitability for making
numerous products for human consumption).
Advantages of the New Triticales
In the last 40 years, triticale has progressed from
being an agricultural curiosity to being cultivated
on more than 3 million ha worldwide. Two factors
have contributed to its popularity: considerable
improvements in its yield potential and grain
quality, and a growing appreciation of the
particular advantages it has over other food and
feed crops such as wheat, oats, barley, rye, and
ryegrass.
Several types of triticale are now available. Some
produce good quality flour for use in cookie,
flatbread, and pasta production, and can be mixed
with wheat flour for making bread. Other triticales
have been developed as dual-purpose (feed and
forage) sources for livestock. In preliminary studies,
the latter types have been shown to have
significantly better nutritional profiles (better
amino acid composition, fiber content, palatability,
and more metabolizable energy) for animal
consumption than conventional grains or forage
crops. In the medium term, it appears that one of
triticale’s competitive niches may be as a feed crop.
Triticale’s other niche is an ecological one. It
outshines most other cereals under agronomically
stressed conditions such as:
• Drought-prone environments. Anecdotal evidence
suggests that triticale requires approximately 30%
less water to produce the same amount of biomass
(grain and forage material) as wheat, sorghum,
oats, or ryegrass;
• Acid soils. Such soils have a high soluble
aluminum content toxic to cereals, and cover more
than 100 million ha of potentially arable land.
Recent varieties of triticale yield at least 30% more
than either wheat or barley on these soils.
• Sandy (low-nutrient) and saline soils. Experiments
with triticale in sandy soils (e.g., in North Africa)
show the crop outyields wheat and barley by
approximately 33%. On saline soils, triticale yields
some 10% more than bread and durum wheats, but
is not quite as productive as barley.
• Insect- and disease-infested environments.
Triticale has better resistance than wheat and barley
to such major insect pests such as Hessian fly
(endemic in North Africa) and Russian wheat
aphid, as well as better tolerance to plant diseases
such as the cereal rusts, barley yellow dwarf, and
several foliar diseases.
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