In the dryland environments of WANA durum wheat production is a major enterprise with important implications on the region economies. Five WANA countries (Algeria, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey) account for over one third of world annual durum area and production. World trade of durum wheat has increased considerably over the last few decades, largely due to the increasing import requirements of North Africa that more than doubled between the 1975-86 period (average of 1.4 million tons) and the 1988-97 period (average of 3.0 million tons). The durum world market has an oligopolistic structure, i.e., dominated by few sellers: Canada, USA, and the EU. In view of increasing durum demand in most WANA countries, durum production must increase significantly and very rapidly. This will have to be achieved through significant and sustained productivity growth, although evidence suggests that with the exception of Syria, durum research, undertaken over the past three decades, has had little impact on durum productivity.