Drought-resistant wheat to appear in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan mulls growing drought-resistant wheat, chairman of KazAgroInnovation Sergey Mogilnyi told Tengrinews.kz. "Two years ago we started a joint project with Australian center of functional economy and research to increase drought-resistance of some of our wheat types. If everything goes well, next year we will get the wheat developed with the use of advanced biotechnological methods and meant for drought ridden areas," Mogilnyi said. According to him, this is an improved breed and next year it will be tested in different climatic conditions in Kazakhstan's regions. "We took all selection breeds and performed genetic typing to detect the genetic carrier for drought-resistance. Then we tried to enhance this quality biotechnologically. This is not a GMO, these are biotechnological selection methods. This is how we improve the wheat. In about three years this breed will be available for agricultural producers," chairman said. According to Mogilmyi, the goal of KazAgroInnovation is to form a range of wheat breeds to give the opportunity to any farmer to decide on which wheat to sow, taking into consideration the daily turnover and the forecasts for the agricultural season.