As one of the three main cereals in the world, production of wheat needs to increase substantially in the coming decades to keep up with the demands of increasing population. This task will have to be achieved with declining quantity and/or quality of water resources (rainfall or irrigation) exacerbated by variable and changing climate. Advancements in wheat genetics and breeding as well as increased use of the phenotyping and genotyping data will underpin the efforts to enhance the amount and quality of grain produced per unit of water available (water-use efficiency). Increasing water-use efficiency is part of a broader objective to produce food while conserving natural resources, which is a hot topic of discussion among breeders, agronomists, soil scientists, crop physiologists and others.
This Virtual Issue contains a selection of the review and experimental papers published in Crop & Pasture Science elucidating some aspects of wheat genetics and crop physiology that underpin increased water-use efficiency in a range of environments (from Europe to Australia). The knowledge presented in this issue should be used as the step stones for further work to enhance water-use efficiency in wheat production worldwide.