If you heard July’s episode *Back to the future for the wheat of tomorrow*, you’ll remember that farmers in Italy are experimenting with evolutionary populations to select new varieties of wheat that are more adaptable to climate change. But it isn’t just wheat. Matteo Pettiti, my guide to evolutionary breeding then, recently reported on farmers further north who are adopting the same approach to pearl millet(*Pennisetum glaucum*) — a cereal even hardier than wheat. (([Drought-proofing crops in Italy: is millet the grain of the future? – Matteo Petitti – CCAFS MSc Research Blog](http://www.plantagbiosciences.org/people/matteo-petitti/2017/08/27/drought-proof-crops-in-italy-is-millet-the-grain-of-the-future/))) Italy has just been through one of the worst droughts on record, but Matteo says the millet did just fine:
> Despite the drought, all plants grew, and [on] 29th July, the same plants were flowering, whilst stunted maize plants were wilting in the surrounding fields.