THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM Providing food security in a changing climate


Supported by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Center for Sustainability, the OptiWheat project aims to promote the advantages of climate-resilient wheat crops and modern agricultural techniques to smallholder farmers in the global south. What’s more, it seeks to develop a holistic approach to ensure the successful adoption of these innovations


The world is sitting on the brink of what could be a devastating food crisis. Rising temperatures, increasingly frequent extreme climate events, a growing human population, the loss of viable agricultural land: these phenomena and more paint a worrying prospect. This is especially true for smallholder food producers in the global south — as well as the billions of people who depend on their work for survival. Over at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s


Center for Sustainability, Dr Reut Barak Weekes, academic head of the institutions’ Glocal international development program, Professor Zvi Peleg and Dr Ittai Herrmann, associate professor and senior lecturer in The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, respectively, have now joined forces in the search for solutions. The result is OptiWheat, a multi-disciplinary


project that brings together cutting-edge plant science, remote sensing and socio-economic community assessment tools to optimize crop efficiency and promote agricultural sustainability. In particular, the initiative focuses on smallholder wheat farmers in Eastern Uganda.


It’s a perfect case study for the researchers’


approach: wheat’s a premium grain, as highly nutritional as it’s widely consumed, but its production capacities are currently limited in the African country, which grows only five percent of its consumption. It’s an imbalance the Ugandan government is eager to improve by introducing resilient wheat crops to areas where farmers currently grow other staple foods. Enter OptiWheat. While wild wheat is naturally


diverse, showing a wide range of adaptation mechanisms, man-made breeding processes have uniformed the crop, creating cultivars that are highly productive but vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. Researchers at the Hebrew University’s


Faculty of Agriculture are working to identify valuable alleles in the crop’s wild ancestors and re-introduce them into modern wheat cultivars, with the aim of making them more climate resilient. Their studies have already resulted in cultivars with bigger root systems, which allow crops to dig deeper into the soil for water and thrive during dry spells — and farmers to end up with 30 percent more yield.


Small-holder farming is a labor-intensive job,


and as such, OptiWheat is also focusing on improving agricultural management. Once resilient wheat cultivars are introduced on the ground, a simple program developed by the team will allow farmers to take photos of crops on their smartphones and be advised on their status. But what if these farmers — who grow around


35 percent of the food in the global south — aren’t interested in adopting new techniques, or find them challenging? Understanding which factors contribute to the long-term adoption of new technologies is crucial for sustainable development. The OptiWheat team, with the backing of the Ugandan government, are planning to conduct market research before creating a plan for best adoption on the ground, working closely with farmers and the local bureau of agriculture to monitor the process. “Everything else can wait, agriculture can’t.”


This is the warning American agronomist Norman Borlaug gave in 1970, as he received a Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against famine. Today, as we face the consequences of climate change and population increase, it’s as relevant as ever.


8 Israeli Academia | 2022


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