Due to the sheer scale of wheat cultivation and the global importance of this crop, wheat provides an impact pathway to improving livelihoods and increasing food security. Cereals such as wheat are an essential part of transforming nutrition and environmental sustainability through their production, processing and consumption. CGIAR, with its partners, develops agricultural and social innovations to improve livelihoods, eradicate hunger and greatly enhance nutrition through environmentally and economically sustainable crop production systems.

Hunger still affects more than 800 million people. At the same time, the rate of global population increase continues to rise: there will be 2.5 billion more people by 2050, none of whom have been born yet. Accounting for a fifth of the world's food, wheat is the main source of protein in developing countries and is second only to rice as a source of calories in those consumers’ diets, providing as much as 18% of total available calories. Wheat is a critical source of life for 1.2 billion "wheat dependent" and 2.5 billion "wheat consuming" poor, who live on less than US$ 2 per day. For example, in western Asia, wheat supplies around 40 percent of the energy and 30 percent of the protein. In every developing region except Latin America, cereals – maize, rice and wheat – provide people with more protein than meat, fish, milk and eggs combined. For consumers who eat whole grain products, such as chapati in South Asia, habesha dabo in Ethiopia or whole grain bread in the western world, wheat is also an important source of zinc, vitamin B (folic acid) and fiber. Breeding for high zinc grain content is a priority at CIMMYT, and several such varieties have been released and adopted by farmers in South Asia.

Cereal production occupies immense areas of farmland: wheat alone covers 220 million hectares, an area of land larger than the combined area of Spain, Italy, France, Germany and UK. Wheat covers the largest area of all crops. Globally, most wheat globally is sown in the fall, whether of spring or winter type, due to its ability to tolerate freezing temperatures. This limits options for food crop diversification or crop replacement to warmer areas, as most other largely grown food crops are very sensitive to temperatures below zero. The combined annual harvest of maize, rice and wheat is around 2.5 billion tons of grain with a value of around US$ 500 billion. While increases in temperature because of climate change are likely to reduce wheat production in developing countries by 20-30%, demand for the world’s largest primary commodity will only go up. By 2050, demand for wheat in the developing world is projected to increase by 60%. For example, the demand for wheat in Africa is projected to grow at an unprecedented rate over the next three decades. Wheat imports jumped from about US$ 3 billion in 1989 to US$ 5 billion in 2005 and US$ 12 billion in 2009. Fueled by population growth, rapid urbanization, raising incomes and changing diets, wheat imports will increase by 23.1 million metric tonnes by 2050.

While wheat is an essential element in feeding the world, its production has suffered--and will continue suffer--the effects of stagnating or decreasing on-farm productivity, falling irrigation water supply, declining soil fertility and threats from emerging pests and diseases. Without international collaboration at all levels and coordinated measures to raise wheat productivity, wheat consumers will pay increasingly steep prices for the staple food they enjoy and rely on.

CGIAR cereals research is taking a systems-based approach, targeting interventions to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor, enhance food and nutrition security, and support crop diversification, resilience and environmental sustainability. Targeted cereal-based interventions are a prerequisite to reducing rural poverty and hunger, improving human health and nutrition, preventing shocks and risks arising from droughts, floods, pests and crop diseases, and ensuring that all of the world’s agricultural production occurs within safe planetary boundaries.