Filippo Bassi
Principal Investigator Genetic Innovation

Filippo Bassi is a senior scientist leading ICARDA's Durum Wheat Breeding Program, which aims to deliver superior varieties with increased yields against a backdrop of rapid climate change. He also works in Ethiopia, India, Senegal, Mauritania, Lebanon, Algeria, Tunisia, and several other countries, to improve local scientists’ capacity to innovate.

He was the recipient of the 2017 OLAM Prize for Innovation in Food Security for the release of heat-tolerant durum wheat varieties in the Senegal River Basin, and also won the Beachell-Borlaug Scholarship. He is a member of the Wheat Initiative’s Scientific Steering Committee, which oversees the Expert Working Group in Durum Wheat.

Dr. Bassi holds a Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics from North Dakota State University in the United States, and a master’s degree in plant biotechnology from the University of Reggio Emilia in Italy and the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Filippo Bassi's Publications

Journal Article
September 13, 2023

Durum wheat is a staple food of the Mediterranean Basin, mostly cultivated under rainfed conditions. As such, the crop is often exposed to moisture stress. Therefore, the identification of genetic factors controlling the capacity of genotypes to...

Journal Article
July 16, 2023

At the turn of 2000 many authors envisioned future plant breeding. Twenty years
after, which of those authors’ visions became reality or not, and which ones may
become so in the years to come. After two decades of debates, climate change is
a...

Journal Article
May 10, 2017

The virulence of 135 single-spore isolates of Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, collected from durum wheat fields representing most of the major agro-ecological zones of Morocco from 2013 to 2015, was assessed on six international differential wheat...

Book Chapter
July 31, 2016

Wheat is the principal staple food in most countries of the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, accounting for 45% of the region’s per capita calorie intake with an average wheat consumption of about 200 kg/capita/year, which is...

Journal Article
November 24, 2013

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) flour represents one of the primary sources of calories and proteins for the human diet.
The increase in the wheat yield without losing its baking and milling quality is an important breeding objective. The
use of QTL...