YouTube video by Kappa: the World of Turtles

YouTube video by Kappa: the World of Turtles

Plant breeders have never had more technology at their disposal. Genotyping, increasingly sophisticated data tools and now AI is changing what breeding programs can see, predict and act on. More capability also brings harder questions about what to adopt, where to put trust and how breeders themselves can add the most value. That’s why Seed World reached out to Dagan Mor at Gene-G. The Israeli company works alongside breeding programs to apply genetic and analytical technologies, giving its team a close-up view of how breeders are navigating this rapidly changing toolbox. We asked Gene-G to look beyond the technology itself and share what it is seeing: what’s genuinely changing, where the risks are emerging and what the strongest breeding programs may do differently next. What are breeding programs doing with genetic data today that simply wasn’t practical five years ago? For years, genotyping outpaced breeders’ ability to use it. Like books before printing, the data was readable only by bioinformatics teams that only large seed companies could afford. For smaller programs, even a 36-SNP purity test was hard to read and use on a daily base, let alone a 120-SNP MABC panel. With AI and analysis-focused genotyping services, genotyping has...

New research suggests sorghum could become an increasingly important alternative to maize in European livestock feed, with climate projections indicating higher yields and expanded growing areas as temperatures rise. Sorghum could play a greater role in European agriculture as rising temperatures and increasing water scarcity challenge traditional maize production, according to new research from France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE). The study found that climate change could create more favourable conditions for sorghum production across much of Europe, potentially expanding the area suitable for growing the crop and reducing reliance on maize for livestock feed. Although sorghum is widely cultivated in warmer, drier regions, it currently accounts for just 0.1% of European cropland. Its tolerance to high temperatures and limited water availability makes it a potential alternative to maize, which requires substantial water and is widely used in European livestock production. Researchers found that sorghum yields could increase from an average of 3 tonnes per hectare under current climatic conditions to between 3.4 and 3.8 tonnes per hectare under projected conditions between 2050 and 2100. Climate Change Could Expand Sorghum Production The study projected that climate change would have an overall positive effect on European sorghum...

Washington State University researchers are helping lead a national effort to protect American agriculture from growing cyber threats, with a particular focus on safeguarding the crops, equipment and digital systems that support food production. In a study published in Nature Food, researchers from across the country recommend establishing a national Agriculture Cybersecurity Consortium (ACC) to help farmers, agricultural businesses and researchers identify vulnerabilities, develop safeguards and strengthen the security of agricultural technologies. The recommendation follows three regionally coordinated workshops and follow-up sessions involving more than 150 stakeholders and participants. The proposed consortium would connect land-grant universities with farms, cooperatives, agribusinesses, cybersecurity companies, government agencies, nonprofits and academic institutions. “With increased digitization of agricultural data and increased adoption of AI into daily workflows, it has become all the more important to provide cybersecurity guarantees in agriculture,” said Ananth Kalyanaraman, professor and director of the WSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the AgAID AI Institute for Transforming Workforce & Decision Support. Monowar Hasan, an assistant professor in the EECS school whose Cyber-Physical Systems Security Research Lab focuses on cybersecurity, said the workshops revealed that many agricultural stakeholders underestimate the risks, according to a press release. “In our...

A new book argues that helping half of the Global South’s smallholder farmers adopt regenerative agriculture could meet the additional food demand to 2050 while restoring soils, biodiversity and rural livelihoods. Helping smallholder farmers access training, financing, markets and agricultural inputs could increase food production while restoring degraded land, development expert Hugh Locke argues in a new book. In Whole Earth Farming: Smallholders and the Great Regenerative Transformation, Locke proposes supporting approximately 240 million farming families in adopting regenerative agriculture and agroforestry. He argues that the resulting production gains could meet the additional food demand associated with population growth through 2050. The book estimates that roughly 475 million smallholder farms in the Global South, typically operating on less than two hectares, already produce about 30% of the world’s food. However, many face limited access to the resources and services needed to improve productivity, according to a press release. “The world’s smallholder farmers are too often treated as beneficiaries of development assistance when they should be recognized as architects of the next agricultural transformation,” said Locke, co-founder of the Smallholder Farmers Alliance in Haiti. Linking Farm Support With Higher Yields Much of the book draws on Locke’s experience with the Smallholder...

Every new crop faces the same question before it reaches commercial scale: Will someone pay for it? Researchers at Cornell University set out to answer that question for bread made with intermediate wheatgrass (IWG), a perennial grain marketed as Kernza®. Using real-money auctions instead of hypothetical surveys, they found consumers were willing to pay a modest premium for bread made with the grain. The findings may offer an encouraging signal for breeders and food companies working to develop climate-friendly cropping systems. They also reveal how much must happen before consumer interest translates into commercial success. “Cautiously optimistic.” That’s how Jie Li, director of programs for Cornell University’s Food Industry Management Program and senior research associate in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, describes the findings. “Unlike typical surveys, we used real-money auctions, so participants had genuine financial stakes in their decisions,” Li says. “That said, our sample skewed younger and more educated — likely early adopters. A 5-10% price premium is meaningful in a billion-dollar premium bread market, but we need retail-setting studies before claiming this scales broadly.” For the seed industry, the study raises a different question. If consumers are willing to pay more, what will it...

A new global research partnership is combining artificial intelligence, genomics, gene editing and field research to accelerate the development of climate resilient crop varieties. The National Potato Innovation Centre is part of a global partnership launching an international research initiative to accelerate the delivery of improved crop varieties to farmers facing climate change, pests and disease. Genetic Acceleration through Artificial Intelligence for Root and Tuber Crops, or GAIN-RT, combines expertise in crop breeding, artificial intelligence, gene editing and field-based research. The initiative aims to accelerate the journey from laboratory research to farmers’ fields. The partnership includes NPIC, which is hosted by The James Hutton Institute; the International Potato Centre, or CIP; the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, or KALRO; and Egerton University. Breeding Struggles to Keep Pace With Climate Threats Climate change, evolving pests and emerging diseases are advancing faster than conventional crop breeding can respond. This widening gap threatens farmer livelihoods, food security and nutrition, particularly in vulnerable regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. GAIN-RT aims to help close the gap by using advanced AI models to predict which crop varieties will perform best under climate stress. Researchers will also use the technology to identify stronger and more durable...

From mining germplasm and predicting crosses to finding genes for editing, AI is moving deeper into the breeding process. Researchers say the biggest gains may depend as much on better data as better models. AI platforms around the world are already changing how crop breeders analyze data, evaluate germplasm and make breeding decisions. Decades ago, modern breeding relied heavily on large plots and wide-scale phenotype selection. Over the past 20 years, tools such as genome mapping, marker-assisted selection and gene editing have expanded what breeders can identify and accomplish. AI is adding another layer, allowing breeders to analyze much larger and more complex datasets and, increasingly, predict outcomes before making a cross or planting a field trial. AI is already being used to better understand trait physiology. In 2019, a University of California-Davis team published results from using AI to predict metabolic pathways in tomatoes. But understanding trait biochemistry is only one area where AI is affecting breeding. AI platforms can now speed genetic marker scoring, help select genes for editing, model breeding decisions and predict cross outcomes without field trials. U.S. firms Heritable Agriculture and Avalo, for example, both offer AI modeling. These and other leading commercial platforms will...

How regulation, social licence, misinformation and public perception are shaping the future of NGTs and seed innovation. Innovation in plant breeding is often discussed as if progress depends on two questions: can the science deliver, and will regulation allow it? In Europe, that is no longer enough. A new breeding technology may be scientifically robust. It may pass through the regulatory system. It may even offer clear benefits for farmers, consumers or the environment. But if it lacks public trust, it may still struggle to be accepted, adopted or defended politically. That is the reality behind the social licence to innovate. For the seed sector, social licence is not a soft communications issue. It is becoming a strategic condition for innovation. Three Gateways to Innovation Every major breeding innovation must pass through three gateways. The first is scientific feasibility: does the technology work? The second is regulatory permission: is it allowed? The third is social legitimacy: is it trusted enough to move forward? The seed sector is usually comfortable with the first two. It knows how to invest in research, generate data, submit regulatory files and defend scientific assessments. The third gateway is more complex. Trust is not built in...

Researchers are investigating how fungal pathogens recognise plant surfaces, opening the door to crop-protection strategies that disrupt infection before it begins. The waxy surface of a crop leaf could hold the key to preventing fungal disease before infection takes hold, according to new research from Adelaide University. Scientists found that two types of powdery mildew could germinate on artificial surfaces coated with leaf wax, even without the underlying structure of a leaf. The results suggest that chemical signals in the wax itself help fungal spores recognise a suitable host and begin growing. The peer-reviewed study was published in Biointerphases, an AVS journal published by AIP Publishing. Fungicide Resistance Raises the Stakes Fungal diseases can cause severe losses in grain crops, threatening agricultural production and food security. Fungicides remain the main means of prevention, but their effectiveness is under pressure as pathogens become more prevalent and resilient, according to a press release. Rather than relying on broad fungicide applications, the Adelaide team examined the point at which contact between a plant and a fungus begins: the leaf surface. “Biomaterials research has developed sophisticated tools for producing highly uniform surface coatings and uses surface analysis to understand complex systems,” says study author...

High-resolution mapping identifies where food production causes the greatest losses of biodiversity and natural carbon storage—and where targeted action could deliver the largest gains. Around two-thirds of the biodiversity loss and decline in natural carbon storage associated with global agriculture are concentrated on just one-third of the world’s agricultural land, a new study has found. Researchers from Leiden University’s Institute of Environmental Sciences combined data on farmland, biodiversity, carbon storage and food production to identify where agriculture places the greatest pressure on nature and the climate. The study, led by Baoxiao Liu and published in Nature Food, also linked those environmental effects to individual food products. Agricultural Impacts Are Highly Concentrated Agriculture occupies more than 40% of the planet’s habitable land and is a major contributor to climate change and biodiversity loss. Its environmental effects, however, are distributed unevenly, according to a press release. The researchers identified major impact hotspots in Mexico and Central America, parts of Brazil, West Africa, India, China and Southeast Asia. Many of these regions either support intensive agricultural production or contain ecosystems that naturally hold large amounts of carbon and sustain high levels of biodiversity. “These are mainly regions where agriculture is either very intensive...

While apomixis has been pursued by plant breeders for decades, it has until now been far out of reach. Several major research breakthroughs recently, however, mean apomixis is much closer than ever t...