Plant Breeding - Role of Plant Breeding in Organic Agriculture

Role of Plant Breeding in Organic Agriculture

Critics of organic agriculture claim it is too low-yielding to be a viable alternative to conventional agriculture. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that poor performance is not an intrinsic property of organic production, but rather the result of growing poorly adapted varieties. It is estimated that over 95% of organic agriculture is based on conventionally adapted varieties, even though the production environments found in organic vs. conventional farming systems are vastly different due to their distinctive management practices. Most notably, organic farmers have fewer inputs available than conventional growers to control their production environments. Breeding varieties specifically adapted to the unique conditions of organic agriculture is critical for this sector to realize its full potential. This requires selection for traits such as:

  • Water use efficiency
  • Nutrient use efficiency (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus)
  • Weed competitiveness
  • Tolerance of mechanical weed control
  • Pest/disease resistance
  • Early maturity (as a mechanism for avoidance of particular stresses)
  • Abiotic stress tolerance (i.e. drought, salinity, etc...)

Currently, few breeding programs are directed at organic agriculture and until recently those that did address this sector have generally relied on indirect selection (i.e. selection in conventional environments for traits considered important for organic agriculture). However, because the difference between organic and conventional environments is large, a given genotype may perform very differently in each environment due to an interaction between genes and the environment (see gene-environment interaction). If this interaction is severe enough, an important trait required for the organic environment may not be revealed in the conventional environment, which can result in the selection of poorly adapted individuals. To ensure the most adapted varieties are identified, advocates of organic breeding now promote the use of direct selection (i.e. selection in the target environment) for many agronomic traits.

There are many classical and modern breeding techniques that can be utilized for crop improvement in organic agriculture despite the ban on genetically modified organisms. For instance, controlled crosses between individuals allow desirable genetic variation to be recombined and transferred to seed progeny via natural processes. Marker assisted selection can also be employed as a diagnostics tool to facilitate selection of progeny who possess the desired trait(s), greatly speeding up the breeding process. This technique has proven particularly useful for the introgression of resistance genes into new backgrounds, as well as the efficient selection of many resistance genes pyramided into a single individual. Unfortunately, molecular markers are not currently available for many important traits, especially complex ones controlled by many genes.

Read more about this topic:  Plant Breeding

Famous quotes containing the words role of, role, plant, breeding, organic and/or agriculture:

    But however the forms of family life have changed and the number expanded, the role of the family has remained constant and it continues to be the major institution through which children pass en route to adulthood.
    Bernice Weissbourd (20th century)

    Given that external reality is a fiction, the writer’s role is almost superfluous. He does not need to invent the fiction because it is already there.
    —J.G. (James Graham)

    The student of Nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the more conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all the perennial miracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of admiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its embryo.
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)

    Not everyone knows how to be silent or to leave in good time. It happens that even people of good breeding fail to notice that their presence provokes in the weary or preoccupied host a feeling akin to hatred, and that this feeling is tensely concealed and covered up with lies.
    Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)

    A set of ideas, a point of view, a frame of reference is in space only an intersection, the state of affairs at some given moment in the consciousness of one man or many men, but in time it has evolving form, virtually organic extension. In time ideas can be thought of as sprouting, growing, maturing, bringing forth seed and dying like plants.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    But the nomads were the terror of all those whom the soil or the advantages of the market had induced to build towns. Agriculture therefore was a religious injunction, because of the perils of the state from nomadism.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)