Durum Wheat: Globally Minor, Locally Major Crop

In this book, experienced scientists in the field describe the importance of durum wheat as an adapted cash crop for drylands in detail, as well as a valuable food crop that must be paid more attention in relation to climate change, global warming, world population growth rate and declining food production resource. It is a ready valuable reference on the subject and reinforces the understanding for durum wheat production promotion as an environmentally sustainable and profitable crop and also its health benefits for its consumers. Various elements of durum wheat are described, highlighting associated breeding and analyzing the experiences and challenges. It proposes some practical innovations and new areas of research for promotion of durum production in drylands and also its consumption instead of major food crops that are not as water-use efficient and have lower nutritional value than durum wheat, such as rice that are over consumed by people in dryland areas. This book also describes the trends in grain yield and quality of durum wheat and its importance as main sources of calories and proteins in many developing countries. It also reports genetic gains achieved by plant breeding in the last decades; and gathers known functional information on the genes conferring biotic and abiotic stresses in durum wheat to cope with climate variable environmental conditions. This book is an invaluable source of information for scientists, teachers, students, agricultural policy makers, and pasta and other durum products companies. Moreover, nutritionists must read the chapter about the importance of durum as a valuable food crop, to realize that in their food recommendation to people they must take into consideration the Earth and its diminishing food production resources.