The immediate global food security challenge in the face of climate change has prompted many to propose the need for transformational change in food production systems through technological breakthroughs. Proposed transformative changes often focus on one component of a system – a new genetically modified crop, a more effective biological fertilizer or a new satellite-guided seeder – often by largely disconnected research disciplines. In reality, and throughout history, few individual technologies have been singularly transformational in the scale or speed with which they have influenced productivity on farms.

Rather step changes in productivity have evolved only when combinations of technologies, often a mix of old and new synergize within a system. William Farrer, Australia’s celebrated wheat breeder of the early 1900s did not use the term Genotype x Environment x Management (GEM) in his pursuit of improved productivity, yet he clearly followed the principle - placing as much importance on understanding how to maintain soil fertility and the circumstances of farmers and millers as he did on improving the wheat plant itself.

Modern agricultural research has become siloed into specialist disciplines (e.g. molecular genetics, breeding, soil science, plant nutrition) and multi-disciplinarity is often penalized in large funding calls in favor of specialist “breakthrough” science. The Expert Working Group in Agronomy of the Global Wheat Initiative was established in 2017 to promote a systems agronomy approach to close the gap between genetic and on-farm yields, and to meet societal goals around quality, sustainability and consistent supply in the face of increasing demand and climate change.

We present a series of recent examples from global wheat farming systems in Australia, Canada and the USA where a systems-focused approach combining new genetics and modern agronomy for the more effective capture of resources has generated significant increases in productivity.

In the low and medium rainfall zones of the Australian wheatbelt, agronomic packages are being developed for earlier-sown, slower-maturing wheat with long coleoptile genetics to facilitate successful early establishment into deep stored water and adapt systems to low autumn planting rains under climate change.

The value to the industry has been estimated to be around $2.3Bill. In higher rainfall zones of southern Australia, new agronomic packages with adapted disease and nitrogen management for longer-season European varieties has lifted attainable yield from 6 to 10 t/ha. In the northern Great Plains of Canada, ultra-early sowing systems for spring wheat have been developed using a unique set of practices (soil temperature triggers, seeding depth and density, residual herbicides) designed to take advantage of increased growing degree day accumulation and water-use efficiency while avoiding high temperatures in the critical period.

The system will provide immediate benefits to yield and yield stability. In the central US Great Plains of Kansas, the variety-specific responses of wheat to several agronomic practices (seeding rate, nitrogen management, higher inputs) are also being evaluated to narrow yield gaps sustainably.

These current examples demonstrate the effectiveness of a GEM approach to systems improvement and emphasize the need for agronomists, physiologists and breeders to consider how new genetic diversity could synergize with the modern autonomized and carbon-constrained farming systems of the future.