OptiWheat: Maximizing Food Security in a Changing Climate

Prof. Zvi Peleg, Dr. Ittai Herrmann, and Dr. Reut Barak Weekes

The OptiWheat project brings together cutting-edge plant science, remote sensing, and community assessment tools to increase food security in developing countries.

Ever-increasing human population, the loss of agricultural land (due to urbanization, industrialization, desertification, and climate change), diminishing resource availability. All of these pose serious challenges to smallholder farms in developing countries, and the billions of people who depend on their output for basic food security.

The OptiWheat project is designed to promote climate-resilient wheat cultivars that will enhance yield for smallholder farms. The OptiWheat project uses a multi-disciplinary approach, combining genetic-physiology and remote sensing with socio-economic community assessment tools. The project puts special emphasis on understanding which factors contribute to the long-term adoption of new technologies among such farmers, in the specific context of wheat farming in Eastern Uganda.

Learn more here.