Wheat production and breeding in Sub-Saharan Africa. Challenges and opportunities in the face of climate change

• Published date: 18 November 2019
• Date: 18 November 2019
• Pages: 696-715
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-02-2018-0015
• Author: Wuletaw Tadesse,Zewdie Bishaw,Solomon Assefa
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Environmental issues,Climate change

Wheat production and breeding in

Sub-Saharan Africa

Challenges and opportunities in the face of

climate change

Wuletaw Tadesse,Zewdie Bishaw and Solomon Assefa

International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Beirut, Lebanon

Abstract

Purpose –This paper aims to review the current status of wheat production, farming systems,

production constraints and wheat demand-supply chain analysis; the role of international and national

breeding programs and their approaches in wheat genetic improvement including targeting mega

environments, shuttle breeding, doubled haploids, marker-assisted selection and key location

phenotyping; and future prospects and opportunities of wheat productionin Sub Saharan Africa (SSA).

Design/methodology/approach –Relevantliterature works have been used and cited accordingly.

Findings –Though traditionally wheat was not the leading staple crop in SSA, it is becoming an important

food crop because of rapid population growth associated with increased urbanization and change in food

preference for easy and fast food such as bread, biscuits, pasta, noodles and porridge. In 2013, total wheat

consumption in SSA reached 25 million tons with import accounting for 17.5 million tons at a price of USD6

billion, while during the same period the region produces only 7.3 million tons on a total area of 2.9 million

hectares. The low productivity (2t/ha) in the region is principally because of abiotic (drought and heat)and biotic

(yellow rust, stem rust, septoria and fusarium) stresses which are increasing in intensity and frequency

associated with climate change. Furthermore, increased cost of production, growing populations, increased rural-

urban migration, low public and private investments, weak extension systems and policies, and low adoption

rates of new technologies remain to be major challenges for wheat production in SSA. Wheat breeding in SSA is

dominantly carried out by National Agricultural Research Systems, in partnership with the international

research centers [International center for improvement of maize and wheat (CIMMYT) and International center

for agricultural research in the dry areas (ICARDA)], to develop high yielding and widely adapted wheat

genotypes with increased water-use efficiency, heat tolerance and resistance to major diseases and pests. Most of

the cultivars grown in SSA are originated from the international research centers, CIMMYT and ICARDA.

Practical implications –This paper will help to promote available wheat technologies in SSA by

creatingawareness to wheat scientists, extension agents and policymakers.

Originality/value –This manuscript is an original review paper which has not been published in this

form elsewhere.

Keywords Challenges, Wheat, SSA, Production, Breeding

Paper type General review

©Wuletaw Tadesse, Zewdie Bishaw and Solomon Assefa. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may

reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and

non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full

terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

This paper forms part of a special section “Climate change and arid land agriculture: impact

and adaptive”, guest edited by Mirza Barjees Baig, Gary S. Stradquadine, Joel L. Cuello and

Mahmoud El Solh.

The authors would like to thank the African Development Bank (AfDB) for supporting the

wheat research at ICARDA through the SARD-SC-Wheat project.

IJCCSM

11,5

696

Received21 February 2018

Revised31 May 2018

Accepted12 September 2018

InternationalJournal of Climate

ChangeStrategies and

Management

Vol.11 No. 5, 2018

pp. 696-715

EmeraldPublishing Limited

1756-8692

DOI 10.1108/IJCCSM-02-2018-0015

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/1756-8692.htm

1. Introduction

Wheat is the most important food security crop at the globallevel with a production of 750

million tons (MT) on about 220 millionhectares (Mha) in 2017. Africa produces more than 25

million tons of wheat on 10 Mha. Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA)produced a total of 7.5 MT on a

total area of 2.9 Mha accounting for 40 and 1.4 per cent of the wheat production in Africa

and at global levels, respectively (FAO, 2017).Bread wheat, which accounts for 95 per cent

of the wheat production at the global level, is also the dominant wheat type produced in

SSA. Trend analysis of wheat productionin SSA from 1970 to 2014 (Figure 1) indicates that

the total wheat production area showed slight reduction, while the total production has

increased from 2.8to 7.5 MT because of the increase in productivity of wheat from1.3 t/ha in

1970 to 2.1 t/ha in 2014.

The most important wheat producing countries in SSA are Ethiopia, South Africa,

Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Zambia in descending order. Ethiopia

accounts for the largestproduction area (1.7 Mha) followed by South Africa(0.5 Mha).

Though traditionally wheat was not the leading staple crop in SSA, it is becoming

important through time, especiallyin the urban areas. The rapid population growth coupled

with increased urbanization and change in food habits has resulted in the surge for wheat

demand in SSA. On average,from 2011 to 2013, SSA countries imported 16.9 MT of wheat at

a cost of USD6 billion which of course depletes the meager foreign currency reserve of the

respective countries.

The increasing demand for wheat at global level, on the one hand, and the challenges

facing wheat production such as climate change, increased cost of inputs, increased

intensity of abiotic (drought,heat) and biotic (diseases and pests) stresses, on the other hand,

make the wheat demand-supply chain very volatile and at times lead to social unrest. It is

projected that demand for wheat in developing countries will increase by 60 per cent in the

year 2050 (Rosegrant and Agcaoili,2010). In 2025, wheat consumption in Africa is projected

to reach 76.5 MMT of which 48.3 MMT would be imported accounting for 63.3 per cent of

wheat demand at the current status quo. Almost all countries of North Africa (Algeria,

Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia), Nigeria in West Africa, Ethiopia and Sudan in East

Africa and South Africa accounted for 80 per cent of wheat imports. On the other hand,

climate-change-induced temperature increases are estimated to reduce wheat production

in developing countries by 20-30 per cent (Easterling et al., 2007;Rosegrant and Agcaoili,

2010). Wheat production will also suffer the effects of stagnating or decreasing on-farm

productivity, falling irrigation water supplies, declining soil fertility, monocropping, and

Figure 1.

Area, productionand

yield of wheat from

1970 to 2014in SSA

region

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

1970

1972

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

2012

2014

Area harvested (Mha) and production

(MMT)

Area harvested (Mha) Producon (Mt) Yield (t/ha)

Wheat

production and

breeding

697