Around the world in eight commodities, episode four: Wheat

Around the World in Eight Commodities delves into some of the planet’s most critical commodities, exploring the complex challenges they face and the innovative solutions being implemented around the globe.

In this episode, we’re taking a look into wheat, a cereal crop that’s been cultivated in numerous countries for thousands of years. It remains a staple for many people today in the form of bread, pasta, cereal and many other foodstuffs.

Featuring:

• Abate Feyissa Senbeta, doctoral student studying wheat, Ethiopia
• Takayuki Hagiwara, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), India

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“Wheat has been a cornerstone of food security for centuries. It grows from the Arctic to the humid regions of the world, from below sea level, like in the Netherlands, to high-elevation areas like Ethiopia – it’s a very important crop globally.”

– Abate Feyissa Senbeta

Transcript

Eden Flaherty
Welcome to around the world in eight commodities, a podcast series by the Global Landscapes Forum in collaboration with the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Program. This series delves into eight of the world’s most critical commodities, exploring the complex challenges they face and the innovative solutions being implemented around the globe. In this episode, we’re taking a look into wheat, a cereal crop that’s been cultivated in numerous countries for thousands of years. It remains a staple for many people today, being processed into a wide variety of foodstuffs.

Abate Feyissa Senbeta
It’s a very important crop because it is, of course, a coronary stone of food security for centuries. It is, of course, one of the early domesticated crop, and currently it’s the most widely grown crop over the world, and it is covered about 220 million hectares of land and about it 800 million tons of time with this program every year,

Eden Flaherty
Abate Feyissa, a PhD student in Ethiopia studying wheat

Abate Feyissa Senbeta
When we see also it is quality characteristics, it is easy to process wheat and it’s also easy to store, and to transport. Maybe this is why it is one of the most traded crops globally, and also it is the first food choice. Agroecolically also, if you see, wheat grows from all region of the world. It grows from below sea level, like the Netherlands, high elevation areas like Ethiopia. So it’s very important crop.

Takayuki Hagiwara
Total wheat, according to the FAO figure, wheat production, 2023 and 2024, 797 million tons, about 800 million tons.

Eden Flaherty
Takayuki Hagiwara, aka Taka, FAO representative in India.

Takayuki Hagiwara
And India produces 112 million tons. It’s about 40% of the global production. So India plays a very important role and then people here, especially northern part of India, when you eat in the curry, you go with the naan, or you go with the roti, and these are coming from the the wheat. And so the people consume wheat a lot. Globally, you know, wheat is a very important commodity and traded very widely. And then many of the Europeans and US, even Japan or China, they consume a lot of wheat

Abate Feyissa Senbeta
With Ethiopia, it is a strategic crop for the country. That is to say, it is very important crop for food security, and it is, of course, the second most important crop next to maize now. So that is also to say many small holder farmers depend on it for income as well as for food. And in fact, the country has not been self-sufficient for a long time, and we were importing huge amount of wheat every year, about 30% of the total wheat is utilized. It is very important, not only the crop, but also the Ethiopian smallholder farmers use as a byproduct like wheat straw or feed as well as for energy and also for thatching roofs, so wheat is a very important group in our country and in terms of calorie, of course, if you see, it accounts for 50% of the total calorie of food the country needs.

Eden Flaherty
But this vital commodity is under threat in Ethiopia, India and around the world.

Abate Feyissa Senbeta
As the wheat yeild has been decreasing, as we see. In the 60s, for example, the 1960s the wheat yeild was about one ton per hectare, but it grew to like 3.5 ton per hectare recently, that is to say that wheat yield has increased, but at this moment, maybe presently, the wheat yield reached its ceiling.

This may be due to the limit to its potential production, or maybe due to climate change and other impacts, and when we see the for example, some of the challenges, for example, natural impacts, the natural hazard or natural disaster, have increased fivefold since the 1970s so to mention some of the challenges globally or in my country’s context, as we have said, climate change is one of the challenge we are facing. Climate change causes like it reduces the yield of a crop, for example, one degree centigrade rise in temperature globally may reduce wheat yield by 6%. Not only by reducing yield, but also climate change affects the land suitable for wheat. So we may observe, for example, a shift in suitable land for wheat. So, so that is a problem, is that we force farmers to encroach new forest land, which, again, aggrivates the problem of climate change.

Takayuki Hagiwara
The wheat normally grown in the winter season. Some places do not have a lot of the rainfall during the winter season and but some, some places does so the important thing in the globally and phenology of the wheat is that when the wheat starts flowering, then if something happenes on the climate, like a heat, heavy heat, then the wheat will be jeopardized. So it’s very climate sensitive, so we need to worry about the impact of the climate on wheat.

Abate Feyissa Senbeta
The next challenges, for example, in Ethiopian context as well is the problem of availability and affordability of agricultural inputs. This is especially the problem in many developing countries, the fertilizer price, for example, now it is rising since the COVID epidemic, and currently there is a problem. We have war, global war, for example, this is also causing trade disruption. Countries like Ethiopia may are not getting enough fertilizer, which the farmers they need. And that is to say, like previously, awareness was a problem to use certified seed and fertilizer, but now it is not a problem with farmers. Farmers need fertilizer, but those conflicts the specialty the global complex is causing disruption on trade side, and the affordability is also a problem.

Small holder farmers have no capacity to buy fertilizer at higher rates, so maybe in that case, the farmers will not use sufficient fertilizer, which indirectly reduces the yield. So this is also another problem. Internal conflicts are also there in Ethiopia, for example, we had war very recently, and still, there is unrest in the northern part of the country. So war that causes displacement of farming communities from their land. That also mean instead of producing wheat, just say, they become aid-dependent. So that is a problem. And we have also other problems like diseases, wheat disease, especially rust is a big problem.

Eden Flaherty
Wheat Rust is a category of fungal diseases that creates yellow, brown discoloration on infected grain plants that looks like rust, hence the name. It can lead to up to 20% yield loss and affects most wheat-growing regions.

Abate Feyissa Senbeta
Several wheat varieties are being released from research institutions in collaboration with international organizations like simit. But rust-resistance genes are getting broken within short period, so that is also a problem.

Eden Flaherty
While in Ethiopia, the lack of availability and affordability of inputs is a challenge. In India, there’s concern that they’ve actually played a role in degrading the soil.

Takayuki Hagiwara
Any plant requires the water as well as the fertile soil. In India, when we talk about in northern part of India where they traditionally grow wheat. And then with the introduction of the Green Revolution, those farmers started planting rice during the summer season and wheat during the winter season. And then, because of the Green Revolution, people started using a lot of the fertilizer, a lot of the chemicals and a lot of water, and that will produce lots of rice and wheat – rice in those summer season, wheat in the winter season. So the soil, because of the repeated production from the same land, the farmer has to put the more fertilizer to it and more chemical into it to produce more so the the soil structure is deteriorated, and then soil itself is beaten up by the a lot of chemical and the fertilizer.

Abate Feyissa Senbeta
Fertilizer have an impact. I mean, if you see the value of chain, the production of fertilizer by itself, it emits a lot of greenhouse gas, and then it is transported from long, maybe from Russia to Ethiopia. Again, there is emmision again, after using maybe there is wash from the land, and also, if it is eroded again, it affects the water bodies and causes in turn, affects, for example, the water communities like, maybe it causes the death of fish and so on. That is true.

Now, I mean, the varieties we are using nowadays, they require high fertilizer. I mean, like previous Ethiopian farmers were dependent on organic fertilizers. I mean, most of the population is still dependent on agriculture, but recently, what is happening is like, maybe as a solution, the farmers are again switching. There is a trend of switching to organic fertilizer, because they are not getting enough chemical fertilizer from government body and so on. So what they are doing is like they are using vermicompost, compost, biosenry, and even dung. So maybe in the short term in a short run, maybe the organic fertilizer by itself may not be sufficient. Maybe blending of organic inorganic may be a solution, because we need higher yield and the plant may need, like freely available nutrients. So in that case, blending of chemical fertilizer and organic fertilizer may be an important thing in the future.

Eden Flaherty
Despite some of the differing challenges, both Taka and Abate mentioned the need to look toward different wheat varieties that could withstand a changing climate.

Takayuki Hagiwara
We really need to think through how to improve the soil quality, and then have the variety to withstand the some sort of the sudden heat strike, so that when the flower season start, then if heat hits to the wheat, and then entire production will be gone. It happened in some other country. So we need to investigate in the sort of good varieties to withstand the heat attack.

Abate Feyissa Senbeta
The yeild of the wheat is declining, or it has levelled off. Maybe there is a need for research institutions to design with varieties that are adapted to wide different agroecologists. I mean, like we mean it like another green revolution. Of course, even if there is criticism and like the yeild of wheat has interest by more than three four, due to new breeding of new wheat varieties, due to intensive use of agrochemicals, and also improved agronomic practices, but maybe in future, of course, by considering we have more knowledge than before, I mean, like green revolution has its own effect. It has effect on climate change and so on. But now climate change is real, and we have to have a means to adapt to climate change. So for this climate change, we made need wheat varieties that are adapted the changing environment.