Medios

Juan Hernandez Caballero (L) and Victor Cano Valencia, prepare to load wheat samples onto a van in El Batan, Mexico, for shipment overseas. Scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are continuously developing improved wheat varieties and each year seed samples are sent out to government and university research institutions and national agricultural research systems around the world. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins

CGIAR Climate's insight:

Scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are continuously developing improved varieties and each year seed samples -- known as International Wheat Nurseries -- are sent out to government and university research institutions and national agricultural research systems around the world.

“Wheat plays a vital role in food security,” said Tom Payne, head of CIMMYT’s Wheat Germplasm Bank, which stores almost 145,000 wheat varieties collected over the past 60 years. “We’ve been sending out wheat samples each year since 1974, so if you do the math that’s 367 tons over the years.”