Ancient and wild varieties of grain have been around for thousands of years, originating in the fertile plains of modern day Eqypt, Iran, and Iraq.

The uncultivated grasses were allowed to naturally hybridise for many hundreds of years.

From this natural diversity, wheat experts have harvested more than 120,000 varieties of grains and grasses, that may help in the search for crops that can withstand heat, lack of water, drought, and climate change.

Wheat breeder Velu Govindan says the ancient varieties and grains are vital to helping with drought, heat and climate change issues. ( Image supplied by CIMMYT )

Dr Velu Govindan, wheat breeder at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Mexico, said ancient and wild grains and grasses may help breeders overcome production hurdles.

"The genetic variety in these ancient wild varieties is very important to breeding," he said.

"Some of the ancient grains have high zinc, iron, protein, and other micronutrients that are missing in modern varieties.

"We need to look at harvesting some of that to improve the nutritional quality of modern grains.

"In addition, heat stress is one of the biggest problems with growing wheat these days, due to climate change.

"The older varieties have some strains that have been exposed to severe heat and we can use them to cross breed for resilience to heat and drought.

"These ancient and wild varieties are still the raw materials for modern breeding."