Editing Wheat (section)

== Production and consumption ==

=== Global ===

{{Main|International wheat production statistics}}
{|class="wikitable" style="float:right; clear:left; width:14em; text-align:center;"
|-
|+ Wheat production, 2023
!Country ||<small>Millions of tonnes</small>
|-
|{{CHN}} ||136.6
|-
|{{IND}} ||110.6
|-
|{{RUS}} ||91.5
|-
|{{USA}} ||49.3
|-
|{{AUS}} ||41.2
|-
|{{FRA}} ||35.9
|-
|{{CAN}} ||31.9
|-
|'''World''' ||'''799'''
|-
|colspan=2 |<small>Source: [[FAO|UN Food and Agriculture Organization]]</small><ref>{{Cite web |title=FAOSTAT |url=https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=www.fao.org}}</ref>
|}

<gallery class=center mode=nolines widths="300px" heights="225px">
File:WheatYield.png|Wheat-growing areas of the world
File:Production of wheat (2019).svg|Production of wheat (2019)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://doi.org/10.4060/cb4477en |title=World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2021 |publisher=FAO |year=2021 |isbn=978-92-5-134332-6 |location=Rome |doi=10.4060/cb4477en |s2cid=240163091 }}</ref>
File:World Production Of Primary Crops, Main Commodities.svg|Wheat's share (brown) of world crop production fell in the 21st century.
</gallery>

In 2023<!--DO NOT CHANGE WITHOUT ALSO UPDATING LEAD AT TOP OF ARTICLE!-->, world wheat production was 799<!--DO NOT CHANGE WITHOUT ALSO UPDATING LEAD AT TOP OF ARTICLE!--> million tonnes, led by China, India, and Russia which collectively provided 42.4% of the world total.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wheat production in 2023 from pick lists: Crops/World regions/Production quantity/Year |url=https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=www.fao.org}}</ref> {{As of|2019}}, [[List of countries by wheat exports|the largest exporters were]] Russia (32&nbsp;million tonnes), United States (27), Canada (23) and France (20), while the largest importers were Indonesia (11&nbsp;million tonnes), Egypt (10.4) and Turkey (10.0).<ref>{{cite web |publisher=UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Statistics Division, FAOSTAT |title=Crops and livestock products |url=http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/TP |date=2021 |access-date=18 April 2021}}</ref> 
In 2021, wheat was grown on {{convert|220.7|e6ha|abbr=off|disp=or}} worldwide, more than any other food crop.<ref name="FAOStat-2023">{{cite web |title=Wheat area harvested, world total from pick lists: Crops/World regions/Area harvested/Year |url=http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC |date=2023 |access-date=5 October 2023}}</ref>
World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined.<!--<ref name="Curtis-2002"/>--><ref name="Curtis-2002">{{cite web |last1=Curtis |last2=Rajaraman |last3=MacPherson |title=Bread Wheat |publisher=[[Food and Agriculture Organization]] of the United Nations |year=2002 |url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4011e/y4011e00.htm}}</ref>
Global demand for wheat is increasing due to the unique [[viscoelastic]] and adhesive properties of [[gluten]] proteins, which facilitate the production of processed foods, whose consumption is increasing as a result of the worldwide industrialization process and [[Western pattern diet|westernization of diets]].<ref name="Shewry-2015" /><ref name="Day-2006">{{cite journal |last1=Day |first1=L. |last2=Augustin |first2=M.A. |last3=Batey |first3=I.L. |last4=Wrigley |first4=C.W. |title=Wheat-gluten uses and industry needs |journal=[[Trends in Food Science & Technology]] |publisher=Elsevier |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=82–90 |date=2006 |type=Review |doi=10.1016/j.tifs.2005.10.003}}</ref>

=== 19th century ===

[[File:Wheat prices in England, OWID.svg|thumb|upright=1.6|Wheat prices in England, 1264–1996<ref>{{cite web |title=Wheat prices in England |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/wheat-prices-in-england |website=Our World in Data |access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref>]]

Wheat became a central agriculture endeavor in the worldwide [[British Empire]] in the 19th century, and remains of great importance in Australia, Canada and India.<ref>{{cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan |title=Dictionary of the British Empire and Commonwealth |year=1996 |pages=193, 320, 338}}</ref> In Australia, with vast lands and a limited work force, expanded production depended on technological advances, especially regarding irrigation and machinery. By the 1840s there were 900 growers in [[South Australia]]. They used "Ridley's Stripper", a reaper-harvester perfected by [[John Ridley (inventor)|John Ridley]] in 1843,<ref>{{cite book |last=Ridley |first=Annie E. |title=A Backward Glance: The Story of John Ridley, a Pioneer |publisher=J. Clarke |year=1904 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B44WAAAAYAAJ&dq=john+Ridley+australia+wheat&pg=PP21 |page=21}}</ref> to remove the heads of grain. <!-- By 1850, South Australia had become the granary for the region; soon wheat farming spread to [[Victoria (state)|Victoria]] and [[New South Wales]], with heavy exports to Great Britain.--> In Canada, modern farm implements made large scale wheat farming possible from the late 1840s. By 1879, [[Saskatchewan]] was the center, followed by [[Alberta]], [[Manitoba]] and [[Ontario]], as the spread of railway lines allowed easy exports to Britain. By 1910, wheat made up 22% of Canada's exports, rising to 25% in 1930 despite the sharp decline in prices during the worldwide [[Great Depression]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Furtan |first1=W. Hartley |last2=Lee |first2=George E. |title=Economic Development of the Saskatchewan Wheat Economy |date=1977 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-7976.1977.tb02882.x |journal=Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=15–28 |doi=10.1111/j.1744-7976.1977.tb02882.x|bibcode=1977CaJAE..25...15F }}</ref> Efforts to expand wheat production in South Africa, Kenya and India were stymied by low yields and disease. However, by 2000 India had become the second largest producer of wheat in the world.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Joshi |first1=A. K. |last2=Mishra |first2=B. |last3=Chatrath |first3=R. |last4=Ortiz Ferrara |first4=G. |last5=Singh |first5=Ravi P. |date=2007 |title=Wheat improvement in India: present status, emerging challenges and future prospects |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10681-007-9385-7 |journal=Euphytica |volume=157 |issue=3 |pages=431–446 |doi=10.1007/s10681-007-9385-7 |s2cid=38596433}}</ref> In the 19th century the American wheat frontier moved rapidly westward. By the 1880s 70% of American exports went to British ports. The first successful [[grain elevator]] was built in Buffalo in 1842.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Otter |first1=Chris |title=Diet for a large planet |date=2020 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=USA |isbn=978-0-226-69710-9 |page=51 }}</ref> The cost of transport fell rapidly. In 1869 it cost 37 cents to transport a bushel of wheat from [[Chicago]] to [[Liverpool]]. In 1905 it was 10 cents.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Otter |first1=Chris |title=Diet for a large planet |date=2020 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=USA |isbn=978-0-226-69710-9 |page=69}}</ref>

===Late 20th century yields===
In the 20th century, global wheat output expanded by about 5-fold, but until about 1955 most of this reflected increases in wheat crop area, with lesser (about 20%) increases in crop yields per unit area. After 1955 however, there was a ten-fold increase in the rate of wheat yield improvement per year, and this became the major factor allowing global wheat production to increase. Thus technological innovation and scientific crop management with [[Haber process|synthetic nitrogen fertilizer]], irrigation and wheat breeding were the main drivers of wheat output growth in the second half of the century. There were some significant decreases in wheat crop area, for instance in North America.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Slafer |first1=G.A. |last2=Satorre |first2=E.H. |chapter=Chapter 1 |year=1999 |title=Wheat: Ecology and Physiology of Yield Determination |publisher=Haworth Press |isbn=1-56022-874-1}}</ref> Better seed storage and germination ability (and hence a smaller requirement to retain harvested crop for next year's seed) is another 20th-century technological innovation. In medieval England, farmers saved one-quarter of their wheat harvest as seed for the next crop, leaving only three-quarters for food and feed consumption. By 1999, the global average seed use of wheat was about 6% of output.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=B. D. |last2=Pardey |first2=P. G. |chapter=Agricultural R&D, productivity, and global food prospects |title=Plants, Genes and Crop Biotechnology |year=2002 |pages=22-51<!--p. 26--> |publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning |isbn=9780763715861 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UF94McWtLP0C&pg=PA22}}</ref>
In the 21st century, rising temperatures associated with [[global warming]] are reducing wheat yield in several locations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Asseng |first1=S. |last2=Ewert |first2=F. |last3=Martre |first3=P. |last4=Rötter |first4=R. P.|last5=Lobell |first5=D. B. |last6=Cammarano |first6=D. |last7=Kimball |first7=B. A. |last8=Ottman |first8=M. J. |last9=Wall |first9=G. W. |last10=White |first10=J. W. |last11=Reynolds |first11=M. P. |display-authors=5 |date=2015 |title=Rising temperatures reduce global wheat production |journal=[[Nature Climate Change]] |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=143–147 |doi=10.1038/nclimate2470 |bibcode=2015NatCC...5..143A |url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/85540/1/Main_Asseng_2014-9-22.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/85540/1/Main_Asseng_2014-9-22.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref>