Alliance researchers breeding the perfect wheat to resist major diseases; student-developed ag-tech solution poised to help

The U of G wheat breeding program is a feat of industry and government collaboration to supply the world with healthy grains. 

Together with private and public partners and a team of professional staff, graduate and undergraduate students, Dr. Helen Booker breeds varieties for disease resistance but also for traits economically critical to farmers: high yield, optimal maturity time, height and structural strength.

Since Booker took over leadership in 2020, the program has already brought five new varieties of wheat to market.

Initiated in 2014, the wheat breeding program was formed as a partnership between U of G, Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) and SECAN. These organizations represent a large network of grain farmers and seed-growing companies in Canada, with Booker herself filling the GFO professorship in wheat breeding and genetics. The research locations themselves -- the Ontario Crops Research Centre sites in Elora and Ridgetown -- are owned by Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario (ARIO) and managed by U of G through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.

Read the story on the U of G News site: U of G Researchers Breeding the Perfect Wheat to Resist Disease