Wheat
Wheat is the grain of the temperate world — sown across cool, semi-arid plains from the North American prairies to the steppe and the North China Plain. It asks for a cool growing season and a dry ripening, which is why it belts the mid-latitudes rather than the tropics.
How it grows
Wheat is the grain packed into the seed-head atop a slender stalk.
What it’s worth to grow
Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 557 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.
Where Earth's climate suits wheat
Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).
Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it
The climate where it grows
— mean monthly temperature ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.
Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop
Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±65° · soil pH 5.5–8.5.
Growing calendar & hazards
Winter wheat is sown in autumn, sits out the cold, and ripens the next summer; spring wheat is sown after the frosts where winters are too harsh. Either way harvest chases the dry heat of early-to-mid summer.
- Drought. The rain-fed wheat belts live on the dry edge; a spring drought is the classic yield-killer.
- Heat at grain-fill. A hot spell during grain-filling shrivels the kernel and cuts both yield and protein.
- Rust & fusarium. Wet, warm springs bring rust and head-blight; a damp harvest sprouts the grain in the ear.