TY - JOUR

T1 - Prioritize perennial grain development for sustainable food production and environmental benefits

T2 - Discussion

AU - DeHaan, Lee R.

AU - Anderson, James A.

AU - Bajgain, Prabin

AU - Basche, Andrea

AU - Cattani, Douglas J.

AU - Crain, Jared

AU - Crews, Timothy E.

AU - David, Christophe

AU - Duchene, Olivier

AU - Gutknecht, Jessica

AU - Hayes, Richard C.

AU - Hu, Fengyi

AU - Jungers, Jacob M.

AU - Knudsen, Søren

AU - Kong, Wenqian

AU - Larson, Steve

AU - Lundquist, Per Olof

AU - Luo, Guangbin

AU - Miller, Allison J.

AU - Nabukalu, Pheonah

AU - Newell, Matthew T.

AU - Olsson, Lennart

AU - Palmgren, Michael

AU - Paterson, Andrew H.

AU - Picasso, Valentin D.

AU - Poland, Jesse A.

AU - Sacks, Erik J.

AU - Wang, Shuwen

AU - Westerbergh, Anna

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Perennial grains have potential to contribute to ecological intensification of food production by enabling the direct harvest of human-edible crops without requiring annual cycles of disturbance and replanting. Studies of prototype perennial grains and other herbaceous perennials point to the ability of agroecosystems including these crops to protect water quality, enhance wildlife habitat, build soil quality, and sequester soil carbon. However, genetic improvement of perennial grain candidates has been hindered by limited investment due to uncertainty about whether the approach is viable. As efforts to develop perennial grain crops have expanded in past decades, critiques of the approach have arisen. With a recent report of perennial rice producing yields equivalent to those of annual rice over eight consecutive harvests, many theoretical concerns have been alleviated. Some valid questions remain over the timeline for new crop development, but we argue these may be mitigated by implementation of recent technological advances in crop breeding and genetics such as low-cost genotyping, genomic selection, and genome editing. With aggressive research investment in the development of new perennial grain crops, they can be developed and deployed to provide atmospheric greenhouse gas reductions.

AB - Perennial grains have potential to contribute to ecological intensification of food production by enabling the direct harvest of human-edible crops without requiring annual cycles of disturbance and replanting. Studies of prototype perennial grains and other herbaceous perennials point to the ability of agroecosystems including these crops to protect water quality, enhance wildlife habitat, build soil quality, and sequester soil carbon. However, genetic improvement of perennial grain candidates has been hindered by limited investment due to uncertainty about whether the approach is viable. As efforts to develop perennial grain crops have expanded in past decades, critiques of the approach have arisen. With a recent report of perennial rice producing yields equivalent to those of annual rice over eight consecutive harvests, many theoretical concerns have been alleviated. Some valid questions remain over the timeline for new crop development, but we argue these may be mitigated by implementation of recent technological advances in crop breeding and genetics such as low-cost genotyping, genomic selection, and genome editing. With aggressive research investment in the development of new perennial grain crops, they can be developed and deployed to provide atmospheric greenhouse gas reductions.

KW - Carbon sequestration

KW - Climate change

KW - Genome editing

KW - Genomic selection

KW - Intermediate wheatgrass

KW - Soil quality

U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164975

DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164975

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37336402

VL - 895

JO - Science of the Total Environment

JF - Science of the Total Environment

SN - 0048-9697

M1 - 164975

ER -