Progress in breeding perennial grains
T. S. Cox A B , D. L. Van Tassel A , C. M. Cox A and L. R. DeHaan AA The Land Institute, 2440 E. Water Well Rd., Salina, KS 67401, USA.
B Corresponding author. Email: cox@landinstitute.org
Crop and Pasture Science 61(7) 513-521 https://doi.org/10.1071/CP09201
Submitted: 9 July 2009 Accepted: 1 October 2009 Published: 6 July 2010
Abstract
Annual cereal, legume and oilseed crops remain staples of the global food supply. Because most annual crops have less extensive, shorter-lived root systems than do perennial species, with a correspondingly lower capacity to manage nutrients and water, annual cropping systems tend to suffer higher levels of soil erosion and generate greater water contamination than do perennial systems. In an effort to reduce soil degradation and water contamination simultaneously – something that neither no-till nor organic cropping alone can accomplish – researchers in the United States, Australia and other countries have begun breeding perennial counterparts of annual grain and legume crops. Initial cycles of hybridization, propagation and selection in wheat, wheatgrasses, sorghum, sunflower and Illinois bundleflower have produced perennial progenies with phenotypes intermediate between wild and cultivated species, along with improved grain production. Further breeding cycles will be required to develop agronomically adapted perennial crops with high grain yields.
Additional keywords: plant breeding, sorghum, sunflower, sustainable agriculture, wheat.
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