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Explore the challenges and solutions in sustainable agriculture, focusing on natural systems to conserve while producing food, targeting vulnerable areas for ecological restoration. Learn about breeding perennial crops, enhancing food security, and supporting rural economies.
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Production alone is not the answer Except on some prime farmland…. • Current practices are not sustainable long-term • Uneconomic (without subsidies) due to global overproduction • Urban taxpayers demand species protection, recreation, carbon sequestration, etc.
Conservation alone is not the answer Except on some remaining parcels of wilderness and critical habitat... • Rural economy and rural communities • National food security • Global population growth
Natural Systems Agriculture • Seeks to conserve while producing food • Targets vulnerable agricultural acreage Prime ag. land Parks and preserves Natural Systems Agriculture Acreage Ecological fragility
Breeding perennial crops • Domesticate perennials as new crops • Cross annual crops with perennial relatives
Intermediate wheatgrass, Rodale / USDA 300 accessions 20 selected (polycross) 380 plants 11 + 3 selected (polycross) 400 plants BFPMC1 BFPMC2
Intermediate wheatgrass To increase grain yield 500 2500 kg/ha (5 yrs. per cycle) @ 20% gain per cycle*: 45 years @100 kg/ha gain per cycle: 100 years * Knowles, 1977; Wagoner et al., 1995, 1996
F1 hybrids produced, 2003-04* * 95% were treated with colchicine or nitrous oxide
triticale X Th. ponticum (2n=70) F1 X triticale F2 F1 40 3 selfed seed
4x wheat X Th. intermedium (2n=42) F1 X 6x wheat (selfed seed) F1 417 335 F2
seed yield, g/m2 Illinois bundleflower, Desmanthus illinoensis
Watt & Coyne, USDA-ARS, Pullman, WA number of accessions that
Helianthus maximiliani
H. annuus cultivar H. annuus wild H. maximiliani
X H. maximiliani H. tuberosus H. rigidus X Helianthus annuus
Sorghum bicolor, 2n = 20 Sorghum halepense, 2n = 40