Through targeted projects, the BGRI brings together breeders, scientists, and policymakers to develop solutions that reach farmers quickly and effectively. By integrating cutting-edge research with real-world impact, our work supports sustainable wheat production for future generations.
From Research to Impact.
Protecting Wheat.
Strengthening Partnerships
Wheat diseases threaten food security and farmer livelihoods worldwide. The BGRI collaborates with local and global partners to accelerate research, breeding, and disease surveillance, ensuring that wheat remains productive and resilient in the face of evolving challenges. Through targeted initiatives, BGRI and its partners drive scientific advancements and practical solutions to combat wheat diseases. The projects below highlight our collaborative efforts to strengthen wheat resilience and support farmers worldwide.
An integrated global surveillance and monitoring system for wheat
Wheat Disease Early Warning Advisory System (DEWAS)
The Wheat Disease Early Warning Advisory System (Wheat DEWAS) project is bringing new analytic and knowledge systems capacity to one of the world’s largest and most advanced crop pathogen surveillance systems. With Wheat DEWAS, researchers are building an open and scalable system capable of preventing disease outbreaks from novel pathogen strains that threaten wheat productivity in food vulnerable areas of East Africa and South Asia.
The system builds from capabilities developed previously by multi-institutional research teams funded through long-term investments in rust pathogen surveillance, modelling, and diagnostics. Once fully operationalized, the project aims to provide near-real-time, model-based risk forecasts for governments. The result: accurate, timely and actionable advice for farmers to respond proactively to migrating wheat diseases.
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Accelerating the development of higher-yielding varieties of maize and wheat — two of the world’s most important staple crops
Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG)
Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG), a project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), brings together partners in the global science community and in national agricultural research and extension systems to accelerate the development of higher-yielding varieties of maize and wheat — two of the world’s most important staple crops.
Specifically focusing on supporting smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries, the project uses innovative methods that improve breeding efficiency and precision to produce varieties that are climate-resilient, pest- and disease-resistant, and highly nutritious, targeted to farmers’ specific needs.
The wheat component of the project will serve six countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan in South Asia; and Ethiopia and Kenya in sub-Saharan Africa.
This project builds on the impact of the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) and Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) projects.
Learn MoreTransforming how the world grows wheat
Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW)
From 2016 to 2020, the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat, or DGGW, project worked to modernize breeding programs at CIMMYT and national programs in India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal and Bangladesh to increase the rate of genetic gain and systematically reduce the world’s vulnerability to wheat diseases and climate change. The DGGW built on an international collaboration of scientists and farmers, inspired by Norman Borlaug, that had its inception under the DRRW project. The DGGW modernized and expanded networks for surveillance of the diseases (especially wheat rusts) and their hosts (the wheat varieties grown) to facilitate timely mitigation of the threats to production. Through the BGRI, which acted as the Secretariat for the DGGW, researchers on the project advocated for and facilitated global investments in wheat improvement to align with the evolving global funding situation for wheat improvement.
The DGGW was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UK aid from the British people through the UK Department for International Development.
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Mitigating the threat of wheat diseases in developing countries
Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW)
The Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat, or DRRW project, was a collaborative effort begun in April 2008 and ending in 2016, that included 22 research institutions around the world. It was led by the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative in International Programs of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at Cornell University.
The objectives of the project were to mitigate rust threats through coordinated breeding and surveillance activities and replace susceptible wheat varieties with durably resistant varieties. The DRRW created accelerated multilateral plant breeding pipelines and delivered improved varieties by helping to optimize seed sectors in wheat-growing countries, particularly in East Africa and South Asia.
The DRRW was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UK aid from the British people through the UK Department for International Development.
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