U Of I Looking Into Stronger Cereal Stocks

A new University of Idaho research project could help cereal growers produce crops that stand stronger and suffer fewer losses before harvest.

U of I has received a $6 million National Science Foundation grant to use artificial intelligence and new field sensors to breed stronger, higher-yielding wheat, corn and sorghum. Researchers are targeting stalk lodging, when wind or other stresses cause plants to bend or break before harvest. That can leave crops vulnerable to pests and disease and make them difficult or impossible to harvest.

“Two-thirds of the world’s calories come from wheat, corn and rice, all crops that suffer from stalk lodging,” said Daniel Robertson, associate professor of mechanical engineering and the project’s lead investigator. “Our goal is to make plant breeding predictive. Instead of crossing plants and hoping for the best, we want breeders to know which genetic combinations will produce crops that are both high yielding and resilient to high winds and other events.”

The goal is to give plant breeders better data, so they can identify genetic combinations that produce high-yielding crops that are also more resistant to lodging. Researchers hope sensing technology eventually can be built into commercial combines, collecting valuable crop data during harvest while reducing the cost and time of field measurements.

The four-year award will bring together researchers from the U of I, Clemson University and University of Nebraska Medical Center.

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