International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN)

HeDWIC’s translational research outputs are underpinned by CIMMYT’s hugely successful International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN). The Stress Adaptive Trait Yield Nursery (SATYN) is an annually updated nursery distributed by HeDWIC through the IWIN.

• Maps of collaborators evaluating the SATYN can be seen here.
• Information about requesting seed of nurseries can be found here.
• Instructions on how to view or submit data can be found here.

The IWIN, overall, is a well-established wheat improvement network of around 700 field sites in over 90 countries covering different mega-environments (Fig 4) -many of which experience heat and/or drought stress at some time- through development of new high yielding, disease-resistant lines targeted to major agro-ecologies, delivered annually as international public goods (Braun et al, 2010, Gbegbelegbe et al., 2017). IWIN-related varieties have impacted at least half of all wheat areas, globally, benefiting especially less developed countries where additional value of around $3 billion per year is spread among resource-poor farmers and consumers (Fig 5, Lantican et al., 2016). This represents a benefit-cost ratio of over 100:1 from the IWIN breeding efforts, and which HeDWIC research will boost as a worsening climate makes genetic gains progressively harder to achieve.

Figure 4: Public and private breeding programs that have received germplasm under the International Wheat Improvement Network (Reynolds et al., 2021, shared under license CC-BY).

Figure 5: Spring bread wheat released by region and origin through the IWIN, 1994–2014 (Lantican et al., 2016, reprinted and adapted under license CC BY-NC).