Download ACIAR Priorities - IAC 2016, New Delhi

Digital Technologies to Modernize
Effective and Efficient use of Plant
Genetic Resources
Eric Huttner and Miriam McCormack
Australian Centre for International
Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
IAC 2016, New Delhi, India
ACIAR
• Agricultural
Research arm of the Australian Aid program.
• Broker
partnerships between Australian (or International
Centres) and Developing Countries Scientists to undertake
research for development.
• 12
Research Programs to target specific areas of agricultural
production. About 100 M AUD annual budget.
• Head
office in Canberra, Australia with Country Offices
located in Partner Countries and regions.
• Aligned
with partner country priorities and Australian
government priorities
ACIAR Priorities
• Projects
are commissioned based on country priorities
• Australian
Aid program priorities:
• Economic
• Focus
growth, trade, productivity as a way out of poverty
on the Asia-Pacific region
• Empowering
women and girls - target of 80% across project
portfolio
©EHuttner201
3
• Engage
and promote private sector
• Nutrition
• Address
climate change and its consequences
Crop Improvement and Management
Food security through increased productivity
• Agronomic practices can be improved
but they are constrained:
• Land, Labour, Water, Inputs
• Sustainability
• Post-harvest opportunities: markets, products storage
• Farming systems: Using more productive crops
• Diversification: crops, varieties
Increased productivity through the seeds
• Better varieties may:
• give higher yield
• resist disease and pests, minimise losses
• have better quality, higher protein, vitamins, cooking
• Improvement is delivered through seeds
• easy to adopt
• limited change required
• need to produce and distribute the seeds
• But other improvements contribute too!
• Improved varieties need genetic resources and
exchange
Modernising plant breeding in the 21st century
• DNA
• Phenotypic
data
• Information
Technologies
• Modelling
• New
Genetic x Environment x Management
breeding approaches
• Challenges
• Breeding
India 17th Century, National Gallery of Australia
for developing countries
is not enough
Phenotype to Genotype
• The
age of DNA
• Low-cost,
• Genome
• Whole
extensive genetic information
sequence as the ultimate indexer for data
genome genotyping for breeding
• Microarrays
• Sequence
• Low
based
density typing
• High
• Low
throughput
cost per sample
• Outsourcing
©Nick Loman
• Expand
data production
genetic diversity
Better phenotyping
• Breeding
effectiveness and efficiency relies on data
• Electronic
• Reduce
data capture
errors (barcodes, sample tracking)
• Increase
throughput
• New
type of data: drones, multispectral images,
Near Infra Red analysis, …
• Digital
systems to manage experiments
• Back
• The
Sorghum Breeding program
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research
up, cloud storage, disaster recovery
end of field books? Not sure!
IT for effective data management
• Breeding
• Need
information management system
to manage
• Lines,
• Field
seeds, pedigrees
experiments
• Phenotypic
• Genotypic
Examples (not an exhaustive list!)
• IBP: www.integratedbreeding.net/
• Agrobase: www.agronomix.com
• KDDArT: www.kddart.org
• Dedicated systems from CIMMYT and IRRI
• Links
data
data (link with suitable database)
with Gene Banks
• Interface
• Multiple
with data analysis tools
options: public and private
Modelling and Simulation
• Integrating
soil, climate, variety traits and crop
management
• Inform
breeding strategies: decide which traits for
which context
• Evaluate
• Inform
• Work
climate risks
farmers: better decision making at planting time
in progress! Used by modern plant breeders.
• Practical
application to farm level will require
innovation in agriculture extension
New breeding approaches
• Large
amount of reliable data captured and stored
electronically
• Machine
learning opportunities (like in other fields of science)
• Genomic
Selection:
• Build
a genotype to phenotype model from a training set
• Predict
the breeding value from high density genotypic
profiles in breeding populations
• Applicable
to developing countries, when program are
modernized.
• Using
• Also
broader genetic diversity
non crop genomes: symbiont, rhizosphere
International Mung bean
Improvement Network (IMIN)
• Mung
bean: an important traditional crop in South Asia
• Opportunities:
short duration crop, high value grain
• Mini-Core
Collection (MCC) from World Vegetable
Centre phenotyped by 4 partners: India, Myanmar,
Bangladesh and Australia
• MCC
genotyped at high density
• Partners
will adopt a common data management
system, electronic data capture.
• Open
network
Sorghum Improvement in Ethiopia
• Water
limitation causes significant crop losses and food
insecurity in major dry-land sorghum growing regions
•
Project co-funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and
ACIAR
• Enhance
effectiveness and capacity of the national sorghum
breeding program
•
New breeding design, larger experiments, digital data capture,
phenotyping for grain quality using NIR.
• Improve
productivity of sorghum in the target rainfall zones of
Ethiopia via breeding and agronomic research
•
•
APSIM to guide breeding and simulate alternative management
options
Key drought adaptation mechanisms in sorghum
Molecular markers for wheat breeding in India
• Combined
skills of Indian and Australian wheat
breeders and researchers
• Improved
wheat varieties for both countries using
molecular technologies
• Germplasm
exchange: future varieties will contain
traits from both countries
• Testing
Genomic Selection for yield
• Traits:
water use efficiency through deep roots, rust
disease resistance, soil toxicity and waterlogging, grain
quality
•
Deployment of the Integrated Breeding Platform as a
data management system
Challenges to modernizing breeding programs
• Skills,
training
• Institutional
change: rewarding plant breeders for team work,
genetic gain, not just for released varieties
• Access
to goods and services, modest amount of foreign currency
may be needed
• Access
to expanded genetic diversity
Breeding impact
• Impact
• Seed
• BUT
of improved varieties is clear
is an effective intervention
breeding needs:
• Responding
• Seed
systems
• Extension
© Seeds of Life
Timor Leste 2004: Sweet potato trials
to demand
and dissemination
• Participation
of the private sector
The power of international science cooperation
©ESA
Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 6th of August 2014
©EH(KhulnaBGD02/2013)