"WHEAT varieties in the Middle East and Central Asia, where the crop originated, have enormous potential to revitalise the Australian grains industry, according to an Australian researcher.

Ken Street, who is based in Syria, said there was much genetic material from Central Asian wheat varieties that were immediately relevant to the Australian grains sector.

"The region, dry like Australia, is the obvious place to look for genes that confer traits like frost and drought tolerance," he said. "There is little genetic material from there in Australian wheat genealogy. The genetic base of Australian wheat is comparatively narrow, coming from Western Europe.""

Prepare yourself for: the robbing of indigenous wheat varieties from local farmers who have selected these varieties over centuries, followed with the inclusion of the desirable traits from these varieties into Australian wheat (with no compensation to middle eastern farmers), followed with the improvement in the production of Australian due to the new genes, and then the sale of the wheat back to the people of the Middle East.