Wheat

Wheat is the name of some species of plants of the genus Triticum of the family of poàcies .

Among the group of cereals, both cultivated and wild, belonging to the genus Triticum, There are a number of the seed which is used as food .

The word “corn” refers both to the ground as its edible seeds. They are annual plants, widely grown around the world.

With its flour mixed with water and fermented in temperature is raised bread.  It is also a raw material of some kinds of beer .

Wheat is one of the three most widely produced globally, along with corn and rice, and most widely consumed by humans in Western civilization since ancient times, has been based food peoples of the Middle East and Europe .  The grain of wheat is used to make flour, wholemeal flour, semolina, beer and a variety of food products.

The word “corn” has the same origin as the Occitan wheat, wheat French, Welsh and Breton blawd bleud, which both refer to the grain as flour, recalling that the activity should be to separate the wheat from the shell that covers.  The Latin term meaning Triticum therefore “(grain) that is necessary to beat (to be consumed)”; as millet milium derived from the Latin, meaning “ground, molturar”, ie “(grain) to be ground (to be used). “  Wheat (Triticum) is therefore one of the most ancient words with which cereals are called and referred to the need for the crushing or grinding.

Its cultivation extends from subtropical climates like that ofEgypt(cultivation of cold season), which is harvested during the month of April, until the warm-cold asSiberia, where it is harvested in September.

The water needs of growing wheat are relatively modest (500 liters per ton of dry matter) and can be grown with annual rainfall between 300 and 800 liters, but has a critical period, a month before the spike, which not lack water.

The hot and dry summer places are suitable for varieties of Triticum durum grain hard.  In cold winter areas such asRussiaand the northernUnited StatesorCanadaare seeded in the spring varieties of soft grain.

Maize has its origins in ancientMesopotamia. The oldest archaeological evidence of wheat was coming fromSyria,Jordan,TurkeyandIraq. Ago to around 8,000 years, a mutation or hybridization occurred in the wild wheat, resulting in a plant with larger seeds, which could not have spread with the wind.  There are findings of charred remains of grains of wheat starch (Triticum dicoccoides) and signs of children in clay at Jarmo, on theIraqnorth, dating from the year 6700 BC. 

The wheat was grown on the initiative of humans produced more food in the wild, this caused a revolution in agricultural calledFertile Crescent. Simultaneously, he developed the domestication of the sheep and goat , wild species that inhabited the region, which allowed the settlement of the population and thus, the formation of complex human communities, as shown also the emergence of the writing .

Agriculture and livestock in the beginning required a continuing care, which triggered an awareness of the weather and the seasons, forcing companies to keep these small allowances for periods less generous, considering the benefits which gives the grain of wheat in ease of storage for quite long periods.

The seed corn was introduced to the civilization of the ancientEgyptand began its cultivation in the valley of theNilealready in the beginning, since this area was extended to Greek and Roman civilizations.  The Greek goddess of grain and the agriculture was called Demeter , whose name means ‘lady’, and Latin derivation became Ceres and here comes the word “cereal”.

InRome, the government ensured the maintenance of the public without providing economic opportunities to low wheat prices and regulating the milling and bread making, as was common practice their ration.  The milling and baking activities were carried out jointly, so that was designed in ancientRomemills – furnaces with high production capacity.

The consumption of wheat and bread in the Roman Empire was a major cover also confirmed in the Bible , because according to the most accurate translations you can count on the text 40 times the word “wheat” 264 times the word “bread” and 17 times the word “bread”, the latter meanings that can refer to bread wheat or barley bread (as was common at that time), although in the Biblical citations are often used to refer to the broader concept of all things required for life, as in the phrase “win the bread.”  In the parable of the sower is referred to the adulteration of large, facing the wheat (goodness) with the weeds (evil).

Until the seventeenth century there were no major advances in methods of cultivation and processing of corn.  In almost allEuropewas grown on wheat, although in some regions was preferred rye and barley (especially in the north).  The invention of the windmill generated a new energy source, but the rest did not change the working methods used.

In the late eighteenth century there were some developments in the mechanical process of Molina Aventis, forklifts and modern methods for transmission of force, which was to increase production of flour.

In the nineteenth century listed mill with steam rollers or cylinders of iron represented a radical change in the ground.  The cultivation of wheat was increased at par with these and many other technological developments that led to improved plant performance and to various parts of the world as North America andOceania.

The world’s largest producer of wheat was for many years theSoviet Union, which exceeded 100 million tons of annual production. Chinacurrently represents the largest production of this cereal with 96 million tonnes (16%), followed byIndia(12%) and theUnited States(9%).

Wheat is grown in environments with the following characteristics:

•     Climate: Temperature minimum 3 and maximum30 ° Cto33 ° C, with an optimum temperature between 10 and25 ° C

•     Humidity: requires a relative humidity between 40 and 70%, from slim to harvest is the time that has higher requirements in this respect, as it requires a relative humidity between 50 and 60% and a dry climate for their maturation.

•     Water has a low water requirements, as can be grown in areas where precipitation falls between 25 and2,800 mmof water per year, although 75% of the wheat grows between 375 and800 mm.  The optimal amount is 400-500 mm/ cycle.

•     Earth: the best soil for growth should be loose, deep, fertile and free from flooding, and have a pH between 6.0 and 7.5, in very acidic areas is difficult to achieve adequate growth.

The rotating crops sown in wheat is very beneficial for the soil because as most of the grass roots hair, helping to improve the structure thereof, and providing more aeration, permeability and moisture retention.