Nothing can stand in the way of good news, especially if the good news is “food”. I am currently in Somerset West, Western Cape attending an annual conference of the Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa and had planned to write a brief piece about a few aspects I picked up from the research papers presented here today.

According to a new report published by IndexBox, the revenue for Africa's wheat market amounted to $15.5bn in 2017, rising by 11% against the previous year. This figure reflects the total revenues of producers and importers (excluding logistics costs, retail marketing costs, and retailers' margins, which will be included in the final consumer price).

Australian researchers have developed a new method to identify drought-resilient wheat quickly, cheaply and accurately.

Future wheat farmers might ditch their rolling fields for indoor facilities filled with bright lights, multi-storied structures and automated airflow. 

Potentially marking the dawn of a new era in wheat quality, Grain Craft LLC is expanding a pilot program in Kansas and throughout the Southwestern United States allowing bakers to replace high-priced spring wheat with high-quality, segregated, preferred varieties of hard red winter wheat.