Partnership to develop wheat varieties with improved nutritional, baking and milling qualities.

KANSAS State University announced March 18 a partnership with General Mills that will ultimately benefit the state's farmers and consumers worldwide.

The two groups have formed a research agreement to develop wheat varieties with improved nutritional, milling and baking qualities. The multiyear project will pump more than $400,000 into wheat development at the university.

"Kansas State has unique capabilities to connect wheat research all the way from genomics to milling and baking, which makes us a strong partner for these types of research projects," said Jesse Poland, Kansas State assistant professor of plant pathology.

Since forming the agreement, General Mills has placed two full-time scientists in the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center to help with this and other projects.

"The overall goal of this project is to identify and develop improved wheat varieties that have superior nutritional and processing quality," said Eric Jackson, a geneticist and systems biologist with General Mills Crop Biosciences and one of the two scientists now positioned in Manhattan, Kan. "It's our belief that this approach will increase the quality of consumer products through decreasing additives in processing and increasing the utility and function of whole-grain products."

"The expectation is that Kansas wheat farmers will benefit directly from this research," Poland noted. "Through these projects, we are focused on developing and delivering wheat varieties with superior quality that (might) be grown as high-value contract acres."

He added that while new varieties would help increase yields, researchers also intend to develop wheat that contains more of the vitamins and minerals that are needed in developing parts of the world, thus addressing a global food challenge.

"With consumer food values changing and popular trends leading the consumer away from grains, General Mills thought it was a critical time to expand our research and develop a plan for the future of wheat," Jackson said. "In partnership with Kansas State, we're connecting wheat variety development with targeted, novel consumer quality. In this project, we will implement focused approaches for characterizing and improving milling and baking qualities in wheat, combined with improving its nutritional quality."

This is not the first time Kansas State and General Mills have worked together. Poland said the university has provided expertise in milling to General Mills for many years.

"We are now connecting this research across the spectrum," he said.

The research agreement is a dollar-for-dollar match, with both groups also providing expertise and staff time toward wheat variety development. Kansas State is providing money awarded by the Kansas Department of Commerce to leverage strengths in food and agriculture.

Volume:87 Issue:12