ICARDA's location in the center of origin of most of its mandate crops provides a unique opportunity to explore, collect, conserve and evaluate germplasm. Barley, wheat, lentil, chickpea, pea, vetch and other forage legumes were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent some 8 - 10000 years ago. However, Near East civilizations, as well as traditional subsistence agricultural systems in the region today, have been based on two major crops - wheat and barley (Harlan 1992).

Wild progenitors and relatives of wheat and barley still grow in the Near East region and during the long history of their evolution they became well adapted to the highly variable and stressful environment of the region. Wild progenitors of wheat, diploid Triticum urartu and tetraploid wild emmer, Triticum dicoccoides, are limited in its geographical distribution only to the Fertile Crescent and adjacent regions (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). However, they can be found in very diverse environments within the region; ranging from -100 m bsl to 1700 m asl and 200 mm to 1000 mm of rainfall, with similar variations in temperature limits and soil fertility. Consequently, the wild wheats developed different ecotypes which display specific adaptation.' Unpredictable fluctuation of weather conditions from year to year, so typical for the Near East region, resulted in the development of highly heterogenous populations composed of mostly homozygous individuals. This particular population structure provides for extraordinary buffering capacity. The high within-population diversity was found in different traits: spike characteristics, heading time, plant height, seed storage proteins and disease resistance. Recent research at ICARDA also revealed population heterogeneity in photoperiod and vernalization responses. Since both T. urartu and T. dicoccoides chromosomes are homologous with chromosomes of durum and bread wheat, their genetic diversity may be relatively easily exploited in breeding programs. These two wild wheats, as well as the related Triticum boeoticum and Triticum araraticum and some species of the genus Aegilops may be particularly useful in wheat breeding for tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses.

What has been said above about wheat wild progenitors is equally valid for barley and its wild progenitor, Hordeum spontaneum.

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