Wheat (Triticum aestivum) belongs to the family Poaceae. It is one of the most important cereal staple food crops of the world. It occupies a pride of place among cereals by virtue of its higher protein and gluten content. Wheat is grown on more land area worldwide than any other crop and is a close third to rice and corn in total world production.
Wheat is believed to have originated in southwestern Asia. Some of the earliest remains of the crop have been found in Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. Primitive relatives of present day wheat have been discovered in some of the oldest excavations of the world in eastern Iraq, which date back 9,000 years. Other archeological findings show that bread wheat was grown in the Nile Valley about 5,000 B.C. as well as in India, China, and even England at about the same time around the world, wheat is grown across a wide range of environments and it has the broadest adaptations among all the cereal crops.
