Balancing quality with quantity: A case study of UK bread wheat

Societal Impact StatementIncreasing crop productivity is often proposed as a key goal for meeting the food security demands of a growing global population. However, achieving high crop yields alone without meeting end-use quality requirements is counter to this objective and can lead to negative environmental and sustainability issues. High yielding feed wheat crops in the United Kingdom are a typical example of this. The historical context of UK agricultural industrialisation, developments in plant breeding and wheat end-use processing are examined. We then outline how employing innovations in plant breeding methods offer the potential to redress the balance between wheat quantity and quality.SummaryBread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has historically been an important crop for many human civilisations. Today, variability in wheat supply and trade has a large influence on global economies and food security. The United Kingdom is an example of an industrialised country that achieves high wheat yields through intensive cropping systems and a favourable climate. However, only a minority of the wheat grain produced is of suitable end-use quality for modern bread baking methods and most wheat produced is fed to livestock. A large agricultural land area and input use dedicated to producing grain for animal rather than human food has wide-ranging negative impacts for environmental sustainability and domestic food production. Here we present an historical perspective of agricultural and economic changes that have resulted in UK production primarily focussing on wheat quantity over quality. Agricultural intensification, liberalisation of free trade in agricultural commodities, innovations in the milling and baking sector, developments in scientific understanding of genetics and plant breeding, and geopolitical changes have all played a role. We propose that wheat breeding plays a crucial role in influencing these issues and although wheat breeders in the United Kingdom have historically applied the most-up-to-date scientific advances, recent advances in genomics tools and quantitative genetics present a unique opportunity for breeders to redress the balance between quantity and quality. El incremento en la produccion de cultivos es un objetivo clave comunmente propuesto para atender las demandas de seguridad alimentaria de una poblacion global en crecimiento. Sin embargo, un aspecto detrimental para este objetivo es alcanzar altos rendimientos de los cultivos sin los requerimientos de calidad de uso final y puede generar problemas de tipo ambiental y de sostenibilidad. En el Reino Unido, los altos rendimientos de grano de cultivos de trigo usados para alimentacion son un ejemplo tipico de esto. Hemos examinado el contexto historico de la industrializacion de la agricultura, desarrollos en el fitomejoramiento y calidad de uso final del grano del trigo en el Reino Unido. En este contexto, hemos descrito como el uso de innovaciones en los metodos de fitomejoramiento ofrecen el potencial para compensar el balance entre la cantidad y la calidad del grano del trigo. Pour assurer la securite alimentaire d'une population mondiale qui continue de croitre, il est souvent propose d'augmenter les rendements agricoles. Cependant, il est aussi important de s'assurer que la qualite des recoltes soit suffisante pour l'alimentation humaine, faute de quoi les consequences environnementales sont tres lourdes. La production de ble a hauts rendements destinee a l'alimentation animale au Royaume-Uni est un exemple interessant sur lequel nous nous penchons dans cet article. Le contexte historique, l'industrialisation de la production de ble, le developpement de selection de varietes et les procedes d'utilisation de ble pour le pain et autres produits qui ont conduit a la situation actuelle y sont discutes. Des methodes innovantes dans le domaine de la selection du ble sont aussi presentees. Celles-ci offrent des opportunites permettant d'assurer une production de ble de qualite et en quantite suffisante pour l'alimentation humaine. Increasing crop productivity is often proposed as a key goal for meeting the food security demands of a growing global population. However, achieving high crop yields alone without meeting end-use quality requirements is counter to this objective and can lead to negative environmental and sustainability issues. High yielding feed wheat crops in the United Kingdom are a typical example of this. The historical context of UK agricultural industrialisation, developments in plant breeding and wheat end-use processing are examined. We then outline how employing innovations in plant breeding methods offer the potential to redress the balance between wheat quantity and quality.image