Increasing wheat nitrogen use efficiency through improved genetics

Nitrogen is a key agronomic input required to maximise cereal yields and grain protein. However, the crop use of this nitrogen is very inefficient with less than 40% of applied nitrogen taken up by cereal crops and about 33% of nitrogen ending up in the grain. In addition, fertilisers have been estimated to be responsible for 37.6% of Scope 1 and Scope 3 greenhouse emissions in the Australian grains farming system. Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) describes the efficiency at which crops take up nitrogen from the environment and uses that nitrogen to maximise yield and grain protein. Increasing NUE of wheat will contribute to Australian grain grower profitability and could also contribute to improving the stainability of wheat production in Australia.

This tender is for a R&D partnership between commercial wheat breeders and academic researchers to undertake a medium-sized applied pre-breeding project to improve the nitrogen use efficiency of wheat across the diversity of Australian wheat growing environments. It is expected that the project will focus on identifying and validating the underlying genetics of loci that result in not only a significant increase in grain protein and nitrogen use efficiency, but also have a positive impact on yield. The project will deliver the tools and materials required by breeders to adopt large effect genetic sources for NUE across multiple Australian environments into their breeding programs. International collaboration with public and private entities, and leverage of existing germplasm and data sources is highly encouraged. Consideration of time-bound exclusivity in the use of outputs by participating wheat breeding companies will be dependent on the proposed contribution to the project of the breeding company including their levels of cash co-investment.

Analytics is available as an in-kind GRDC contribution to this investment through GRDC’s strategic partnership Analytics for the Australian Grains Industry (AAGI). Support could include advice on experimental and sampling design, statistical genetics, and analysis of field trials. To access AAGI support, applicants must consult AAGI and describe the agreed scope of support in their tender. Please make enquiries to Curtin University (attention Prof. Mark Gibberd) at [email hidden]. Please note, applicants that decline AAGI support must describe a plan for analytics in their tender. Applicants must demonstrate they have the analytics capabilities required to deliver the Outputs and describe the rationale for not engaging AAGI support.

Outcome

From 2026, Australian wheat breeders have access to germplasm, specific markers and knowledge of genes that will allow them to increase Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) of wheat by a minimum of 10% against current elite cultivar benchmarks.

Grower Outcome: From 2036, growers have access to improved wheat varieties with improved Nitrogen Use Efficiency, resulting in higher yields and higher grain protein content with the same or less nitrogen inputs.