Grainswest - Winter 2024

Winter 2024 Grains West 20 W hether it’s pernicious pests, an unpredictable climate or increasing costs, threats to cereal crops constantly evolve. To build and maintain a sustainable system for cereal production in Canada requires the ability to adapt. There are few better examples of adaptability in agriculture than the efforts made by plant breeders to assist farmers. Breeders work hard to secure and utilize funding, physical resources and new technology to create varieties that meet ever-shifting agronomic challenges. All this to create healthy, high-yielding and profitable cereals. “I think the whole basis for a sustainable, profitable crop production system is varieties that perform well,” said Curtis Pozniak, director of the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. Pozniak facilitates the Centre’s research and breeding activities, and his team continuously works to develop field-ready cultivars for western Canadian farmers. Plant breeding is a science, and its basic principles haven’t changed since humans started to improve varieties. “At a fundamental level, plant breeders are [still] doing the same thing,” said Pozniak. “They’re intercrossing varieties, generating genetic variability, which is the basis of crop improvement, putting material into the fields and making selections for the environments they’re targeting for commercial production.” It’s slowly getting easier for plant breeders to use genomic technologies and DNA testing. “Our understanding of the genetics of many of the traits that we’re selecting for is getting a lot better,” added Pozniak. Having that knowledge to support decisions on selection can make the breeding process more efficient. “We actually know the DNA sequence that’s causing [disease] resistance and we follow that with DNA markers and very quickly integrate that into our breeding program.” There’s no single silver bullet technology on the plant breeding horizon that will speed the process, but continued advancement provides innovative tools essential to sustainable plant breeding. “It’s how we integrate all of those tools together in a way that’s efficient, effective and productive,” said Pozniak. “That’s really what plant breeding is about.” Improved breeding efficiency doesn’t necessarily shorten the time it takes to get a new variety ready for commercial production. “What we VAR I E T Y S HOW Plant breeding system produces varieties with star quality BY KAITLIN PACKER BERGER LEAD GRAPHIC BY SHUTTERSTOCK