ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the challenges of diverse climates, diseases, and market classes that are faced by North American small-grain cereal breeders and producers. Chief among the challenges to breeding durably disease-resistant cereals in North America is the great diversity of climates and thus of specific disease and pest problems. Wheat is grown across vast areas of the United States and Canada, and thus a wide array of environmental conditions govern its production. Production areas include the cool Canadian maritime provinces. Naturally, then, each North American market class of each crop has its particular set of climate conditions, rotational partner crops, and disease and pest problems. While Fusarium head blight has become a problem since the 1990s in almost all production areas, many diseases are relatively regional. Adding to the complexity of the germplasm challenges are the diversity of breeding programs and the strained resources for public breeding, pre-breeding and breeder training.
