HISTORY AND EVALUATION OF EMMER WHEAT

Grains are the most important source of calories and protein in the world. It is known that 52% of the daily calorie intake per capita in the world is taken from proteins and 47% from grain products. Wheat grain, which is one of the most important cereal products, has been the main food source for most countries for many years due to its suitable nutritional value, transportation, storage, easy cultivation, and wide adaptation limits. 
Undoubtedly, wheat comes first among the cultivated plants that are of great importance in different aspects today. Wheat is an indispensable food item for human nutrition in Turkey as well as all over the world. Productive and high-quality wheat varieties developed with traditional plant breeding programs have met the nutritional needs of people so far, and studies continue rapidly today. However, world agriculture is facing serious problems due to changing biotic and abiotic environmental pressures. The cultivars have become more homogeneous in terms of their genetic structures and contain less genetic diversity than their village varieties, transitional forms, and wild relatives. Wild species, transitional forms, and village varieties are gene stores that have a wide genetic base and constitute an important resource for the elimination of future problems of cultivated plants or for the acquisition of new characteristics in plants.