To meet global demand for wheat, a doubling of the rate of annual progress in wheat breeding is necessary. Future gains in yield potential need to come from increases in biomass, achievable by improving radiation use efficiency and photosynthesis.

Photosynthetic traits have not been exploited in wheat breeding as they are difficult to measure at the canopy level. This project will bring new phenomics tools to wheat pre-breeding and breeding to allow exploitation of genetic variation in photosynthesis to breed for improved yield potential.