Research Creating Tomorrow’s Varieties Today

Researchers throughout the U.S. are working on creating new varieties that can handle the changing environment and other challenges in the future.

Charlie Brummer with UC Davis said with warming temperatures, the expectation is that irrigation will become difficult.

“We do know that the use of water is going to be more contentious. The way we apply it is going to be different and to the extent that we can predict that and use that as our selection method, that’ll help us.”

Brummer has worked a lot on alfalfa crops which require a lot of water as he looks for new, heartier varieties that can handle drought and heat stress.

Researchers are also using big data to identify potentially successful varieties more quickly, they are working with farmers by growing directly and Brummer said the future is bright.

“I think we can make tomorrow’s agriculture be not only productive but also environmentally sensitive and so, but it’s a challenge and I think there’s a lot of work to be done using as many tools as we have to make sure that that happens.”

Brummer said one of the biggest challenges is that you have to forecast future conditions, but grow and identify varieties in current conditions which will be different.

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