New Breeding Approach Targets Crop Rotations, Not Yield Alone

Breeding crops for farming systems rather than yield alone could exploit untapped genetic potential and help farmers cut fertilizer bills.

This new way of thinking about crop breeding has been set out by researchers at the University of Queensland.

The research is published in Plant Communications and Nature Genetics.

Dr. Millicent Smith said the idea was to select varieties for what they left behind for the next crop, not just for what they produced.

"We already know that every crop leaves a legacy, such as altered soil nutrients, water, structure and microbial communities," Smith said.

"Rotating crops has delivered agronomic benefits for centuries, yet the genetics underpinning those benefits have remained largely invisible to plant breeding."

Smith's team at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation is treating rotation as a genetic question rather than a management one.

"Growers choose which crop follows which. What we are saying is that the variety chosen matters, too, and could be something breeders select for," she said.

Testing this theory has already shown remarkable results, with wheat yields varying by up to 1 tonne per hectare.