Israel-Matters

COULD ANCIENT WHEAT BE THE SOLUTION TO THE WORLD’S FOOD CRISIS?

With modern wheat in short supply and lacking genetic diversity and resilience, Israeli seed detectives are amassing a treasure of ancient cultivars.

Elana Shap | Courtesy Israel21C

A quarter of the world’s food comes from just one crop. It grows abundantly in Russia and Ukraine, but war has obstructed the supply chain.

Add to this the effects of climate change, and a major food crisis seems inevitable.

One solution could be lying in a seed collection housed in the Israel Plant Gene Bank of the Volcani Center Agricultural Research Organization near Tel Aviv.

“We have built up a collection of over 900 wheat lines. This is a massive and rich collection compared to banks in other parts of the world,” says Volcani researcher Sivan Frenkin.

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Photo Credit: Wheat field at sunset, taken in Israel. By OW17 via Shutterstock

 

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