Wheat Growing and Quality in Organic Farming

Agricultural crop species represent a negligible part of the existing biodiversity. Over 50 percent of the daily global requirement of proteins and calories is met by just three crops – maize, wheat and rice (FAO, 1996) – and only 150 crops are commercialised on a significant global scale. On the other hand, ethnobotanic surveys indicate that, worldwide, more than 7,000 plant species are cultivated or harvested from the wild (Wilson, 1992). The composition of crops has significantly changed in farming history. Introducing new more efficient crops has jeopardized obsolete landraces being important genetic resources, serving for the breeding process (Collins & Hawtin, 1999). At present, genetic diversity in agriculture as well as in nature is often seriously endangered (Dotlačil et al., 2002). At least 1.8 million hectares of main cereal species in the world are under organic management (including in-conversion areas). As some of the world’s large cereal producers (such as India, China and the Russian Federation) did not provide land use details, it can be assumed that the area is larger than shown here (Willer & Kilcher, 2009). Comparing this figure with FAO’s figure for the world’s harvested cereal area of 384 million hectares (FAOSTAT, 2011), 0.5 percent of the total cereal area is under organic management. Triticum L., and bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in particular, is the most frequent crop in organic farming, the same as in conventional farming. It is grown in organic system on a total surface of more than 700 000 ha (Willer & Kilcher, 2009).