HOW SEED BREEDING AND KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION WILL CARRY GROWERS TO A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE With losses in agrochemistry continuing, more variable growing conditions predicted and the need to move to more sustainable production, individual choices around seed will have an increasingly important impact on crop production efficiency, industry specialists believe.
The most important day of a crop’s life is the day the seed is sown and this is likely to be even more important than ever in the future, says agricultural innovations consultant Dr. Tony John. “Whilst precision farming and robots will do much to improve the efficiency of our production in the future, genetic development will undoubtedly do the majority of the ‘heavy lifting’ in meeting the demands of sustainable and responsible intensification in the future,” he says. “Whilst much of this will be down improved traits and performance available, a lot will be due to the knowledge and data associated with the seed chosen.” With over 25 years experience in international agricultural research, director level positions in commercial agronomy and a current role advising the UK government’s Department of International Trade (DIT), he believes
integration of biology and data at farm level will become increasingly important. “Seed and genetic development will have a fundamental role to play in helping producers meet the challenges of the future and will go a long way to replacing the level of inputs used to date. “Genetics have the opportunity to replace the sprayer in its current form in many instances in the future, especially when used in combination with the other technologies that are, or will become available, as Agriculture 4.0 develops in the future.” Data, or more specifically, integrated data, is king, he believes “Systems that collect data and integrate it across all our farming operations have the potential to radically improve our production efficiency. “Such technology also offers the opportunity for the transfer of knowledge at a scale we have not seen before. “But at the heart of all these exciting developments lies the fundamental performance of what we sow in the ground in the first place and this is undoubtedly the next frontier of development as new breeding techniques speed up the process of traits from lab to field.” Helping growers future challenges
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KWS UK knowledge transfer manager Dr. Kirsty Roberts agrees saying significant progress is being made in the development of traits and characteristics needed to help growers mitigate against the challenges of the future. “Sequencing of the wheat genome means we can better identify the genes controlling specific traits and with marker 26 DIRECT DRILLER MAGAZINE
KWS UK knowledge transfer manager Dr. Kirsty Roberts
assisted breeding and genomic selection, we can increase the speed and efficiency of breeding. “High throughput phenotyping - inside in glasshouses and outside by via drones or tractor-mounted - is transforming the way breeders work. “Across the globe, KWS is now using robots and flying drones to continuously collect data in the fields and to evaluate this using artificial intelligence (AI). “Ongoing investment in this area means we are not only improving the amount of data we are now capturing it also means we are able to analyse it much more efficiently than before. “This in turn produces more accurate and faster breeding results plus an improved development process overall.” So much so that Sowing for Peak Performance (SPP) is now a fundamental breeding objective that underpins all KWS genetic development now and into the future, she says. “SPP is based on the premise that 80% of what your crop can deliver is locked into the seed you buy and its match to ISSUE 10 | JULY 2020
