the Symposium on Wheats for More Tropical Environments - cimmyt

12In Argentina, <strong>the</strong>re have been ups anddowns, principally depending ongovernment pricing policies. but <strong>the</strong>upward trend in production has beenvery strong and <strong>the</strong>re is every reason tobelieve that, in <strong>the</strong> next few years. itwill increase even more rapidly.The real success story in wheat hasbeen in Bangladesh. It has gone from asmall wheat-production area in 1961-65to a production of over one million tonstoday. This has occurred withtechnology that was co-generated byCIMMYT and <strong>the</strong> Government of India.and imported into Bangladesh andapplied to <strong>the</strong> fields of former riceproducers. It is a story of anextraordinary take-off in wheatproduction.There are. however. problem areas in<strong>the</strong> world where wheat production hasnot increased. These areas are mainlyin <strong>the</strong> Middle East and Mrica. where<strong>the</strong>re has been a downward trend in percapita production.CIMMYT wheats are now planted onapproximately 40 million hectares indeveloping countries and ano<strong>the</strong>r 10million in developed countries. Whenwe say CIMMYT. we are referring tothis network of some 2.500 scientistsscattered around <strong>the</strong> world. These 50million hectares may have alreadyexpanded to 60 or even 65 million; at<strong>the</strong> moment we are trying to get newfigures on <strong>the</strong> area under wheat cropsthat bear CIMMYT germplasm. Tenmillion tons of grain may be added to<strong>the</strong> world's food supply annually. justfrom <strong>the</strong> effect of <strong>the</strong>se varieties.Looking briefly at maize. <strong>the</strong>re hasbeen a similar success story in <strong>the</strong>1969-71 to 1979-81 period. There havebeen significant increases in yielddUring <strong>the</strong> decade. The developedcountries had made big increasesdUring <strong>the</strong> 1959-61 to 1969-71 decadebut. with <strong>the</strong> developing countriescatching up. an even more surprisingpercentage increase in total productiontook place this last decade.We reckon that some 3 million hectaresof land are now under improved maizevarieties coming out of <strong>the</strong> CIMMYTnetwork. with some 90 million dollarsin value added each year. But. hereagain, <strong>the</strong>re are regional discrepancies.While Latin America had an increase inproduction of 2.4% annually dUring <strong>the</strong>last decade. Mrica has not kept pacewith <strong>the</strong> rate of population growth. Theincrease in <strong>the</strong> Middle East has beengreater than <strong>the</strong> rate of populationgrowth. and Asia has made some realgains in per capita availability of maize.Much of CIMMYT's effort continues tobe on improving <strong>the</strong> genetic yieldpotential. but even more effort is nowgoing into increasing yielddependability under environmentalstress conditions. That is why you arehere this week. We are trying to close<strong>the</strong> gap between potential yields andthose on farmers' fields. This is <strong>the</strong>reason that <strong>the</strong> emphasis on on-farmresearch and production agronomy hasbecome a much more substantial partof our program in <strong>the</strong> last few years.The biggest problem we face ispopulation growth, with which you arefamiliar. When I was born. <strong>the</strong>population of <strong>the</strong> world was less than 2billion people. If I live my three scoreand seven years. <strong>the</strong> population by <strong>the</strong>end of my life time will exceed 6.5billion. This is what can happen to <strong>the</strong>population of <strong>the</strong> world Within <strong>the</strong>space of one man's life. This Is <strong>the</strong>challenge that faces us in <strong>the</strong> yearsahead. and this is where ouropportunity lies.