Bob Dole, former Kansas state legislator and U.S. senator

The wheat variety was developed by Kansas State University and will be available through AgriPro brand wheat for the 2018 season, according to Syngenta. The Bob Dole variety is expected to feature a good disease package with leaf and stripe rust tolerance along with fusarium head blight resistance, Syngenta said. The variety also is expected to provide good end-use quality and good grain and forage yield, the company noted.

“Bob Dole is a man of quality character who always looked out for wheat farmers and rural communities,” said Greg McCormack, AgriPro key account manager for Syngenta in the Plains region. “We are proud to partner with Kansas Wheat to provide farmers with a new variety that has great yielding potential and features strong quality characteristics, just like its namesake.”

Dole said he was “honored” to be the namesake of the new wheat variety.

“Wheat feeds people across the country and throughout the world, so I am particularly humbled that my name is attached to such a fundamental source of global nutrition,” he said. “I believe in the value of this partnership between Syngenta and the Kansas Wheat Commission — an alliance that will ensure continued access to quality food.”