By Hannah Fischer
Rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events are reshaping agriculture around the world. In Vermont, where devastating floods and long-lived droughts have become defining features of recent growing seasons, researchers are treating the state as a living laboratory for building climate resilient agricultural systems.
Dr. Eric von Wettberg, a professor in the University of Vermont’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, studies how domestication and breeding have narrowed the genetic diversity of crops. He seeks to understand evolutionary ecology and population genetics of wild crop relatives to breed more resilient varieties, conserve genetic resources, and strengthen agricultural systems in the face of climate change.
At UVM’s Horticulture Research and Education Center (HREC), his research team is uncovering multiple strategies for adapting to an unpredictable climate. A plot of perennial kernza grows alongside short-duration mung bean and buckwheat—three crops that demonstrate resilient approaches to a challenging climate.
Kernza is designed to live and produce over multiple growing seasons, while mung bean and buckwheat can reach maturity in fewer than 100 days, allowing farmers to recover after an event that wipes out their harvest.
Source : uvm.edu