The main purpose of this report is to review the status of the types of triticale developed at the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT) as food crops for use in developing nations. A secondary purpose is to reintroduce triticale to the research community outside the Third World. A brief discussion of the crop's future for the United
States is given in Appendix A.
To concentrate on ClMMYT's high-yielding, broadly adapted spring triticales seems justified in a book aimed primarily at helping developing countries. It is ClMMYT's types of triticales with good quality for baking that are most likely to benefit Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
This is not to say, however, that we intend to slight or ignore the work conducted in Canada, the United States, the Soviet Union, Poland, other European nations, Australia, or anywhere else. The report refers to such work at various points, but it is not intended to be an encyclopedic appraisal of all triticale research.
The panel that produced the report was made up largely of cereal scientists not involved in triticale work. Before they met, most panel members were skeptical of triticale's potential as a crop and were unfamiliar with the details of ClMMYT's recent accomplishments. They met in April 1986 in Ciudad Obregon as well as at the CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City.
For several days they interviewed CIMMYT researchers (see list of CIMMYT contributors), analyzed the latest results, and examined test plots of the current triticale varieties. National Research Council staff then solicited comments and information from other researchers worldwide (see list of other contributors) and integrated the responses into the final report.
The report is intended mainly for officials and institutions concerned with agriculture in developing countries, and scientists with related interests. Its purpose is to provide a general introduction to the crop. It is not a technical guide for introducing, planting, or utilizing triticale. Information on such operational details can be obtained through the research contacts and selected readings given in the appendixes.
This study is a joint effort of two divisions of the National Research Council: the Board on Agriculture and the Board on Science and Technology for International
Development (BOSTID). It continues a BOSTID series that explores promising plant resources that heretofore have been neglected or overlooked. This series is prepared under the auspices of BOSTID's Advisory Committee on Technology Innovation (ACTI). Established in 1971, ACTl's mandate is to assess unconventional scientific and technological advances with particular promise for solving problems of developing countries.
Other titles in ACTI's plant sciences series include:
· Tropical Legumes: Resources for the Future (1979)
· The Winged Bean: A High-Protein Crop for the Tropics (1981)
· Amaranth: Modern Prospects for an Ancient Crop (1983)
· Quality-Protein Maize (1988)
· Lost Crops of the Incas (1989)
The panel members are indebted to the CIMMYT staff for their assistance and hospitality, as well as for the yield information and other basic data on which this report's conclusions are based. The panel is also grateful to all the contributors, who added immeasurably to the final product.
Funds for this study were made available by the Agency for International Development.
Specifically, they were jointly contributed by the Office of the Science Advisor and by the Office of Agriculture in the Bureau for Science and Technology.
How to cite this report:
National Research Council. 1989, Triticale: A Promising Addition to the World's Cereal Grains. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.