Sustainable production and management of biological resources are key agricultural drivers within a changing world. An unprecedented coincidence of challenges is currently threatening global food security. Major issues are represented by progressive shrinkage and deterioration of arable land and fresh water resources, as well as dramatically increasing abiotic stress conditions, notably temperature extremes (mainly terminal heat) and drought. Events of this kind are occurring in a progressively ‘chronic’ fashion in expanding areas of Mediterranean regions, including the participant countries to IMPRESA project. Since the agricultural sector has traditionally played a key role in the economy of most such countries, both European, North African and of West Asia, reinforcing regional cooperation to build sustainable food production systems is of mutual importance.

Major concerns involve staple food crops such as durum wheat (Triticum durum) (DW), the target species of the IMPRESA project, which require unconventional breeding strategies for a challenge-proof production. As natural diversity of crops, including DW, has been strongly reduced by the domestication process and breeding for maximum yield under optimal conditions, the overall objective of IMPRESA will be to widen DW genetic basis, in order to provide untapped possibilities for breeding to develop genotypes better coping, in terms of yield performance and stability, with a variety of abiotic stresses. At the same time, and ancillary to the former, a further, comprehensive objective will be to gain knowledge of the biological processes contributing to the improved performances.