Continuing an old thread most recently discussed in Rootless Bloviation: More about African Ag

The wheat is a new variety, one that is high yielding and resistant to drought. As a result, small farming families are realizing harvests on farmlands once considered too poor to cultivate, to the country´s social and economic benefit.

The progress is life-saving at a time when wheat crops in Kenya and other African countries are plagued by a virulent new strain of fungus called "wheat rust" that threatens the region´s farmlands. . .

Scientists and crop researchers at Kenya´s Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) developed the new wheat seeds over the past decade. Through a process called "mutation plant breeding", they applied radiation-based techniques to modify crop characteristics and traits.

The story is from the International Atomic Energy Agency. I've always been stonkered about the acceptance of mutagenic cultivars produced by heat, chemical and radiation induced mutation, while controlled genetic alteration is treated with suspicion.

There are some interesting rice cultivars seeing increasing use, those called upland rice, which use far less water, more like other field crops such as wheat than varieties grown in flooded paddies. They still use more water than wheat, but far less than other rice. This expands the amount of land suitable for rice cultivation, and reduces use of an increasingly scarce resource.

These would be good places to consider the use of biochar too. It increases the water holding capacity of soil, keeping it in the root zone where plants can access it rather than flowing away or seeping below plants. It has an analogous affect on soil nutrients, and water management is a part of that. More growth with fewer inputs of nutrients and water.

The combination of improved crop varieties and improved agronomic systems can reduce, perhaps eliminate, the so-called food crisis.