Plant Breeding Stories

S4 E1 Plant Breeding Stories - Chal Landgren by PBS International

Dr Greg Baute, Senior Director of Breeding and Genetics at Aurora Cannabis, explores the maturing cannabis market and describes why boots-on-the-ground field observations are critical for success.

In this episode of the Plant Breeding Stories podcast, Greg shares how his educational background and experiences in bioinformatics and practical fieldwork laid a strong foundation for his career, which began in programs breeding sunflowers and tomatoes. We learn about some of the challenges early cannabis breeders faced, including a massive germplasm characterization effort. Greg describes some of the main breeding objectives for improving cannabis varieties, including incorporating consumer-facing traits and the challenges of working with subjective preferences. He explains why it’s possible to commercialize a new cannabis variety much faster than other cultivated crops and the complexity of regulatory framework that has to be navigated.

Transcript – www.PBSInternational.com/podcast

Lane Selman, founder of the Culinary Breeding Network, enriches the science of plant breeding using the colour and engagement that the arts, humanities and convivial discussion bring.

In this episode of the Plant Breeding Stories podcast, Lane explains how her passions for agriculture, food and art collided to unite diverse perspectives from plant breeders, farmers, consumers and chefs. She describes how a conversation can sometimes transcend science to deliver practical value and shares how an overly data oriented approach can only answer the questions we think to ask.

Lane celebrates diversity in food production and explores the eclectic motivations of plant breeders. Her thoughtful insights challenge some traditional perceptions about crop improvement and the food system.

Transcript –

www.PBSInternational.com/podcast

More about the Culinary Breeding Network -

@culinarybreedingnetwork

https://www.culinarybreedingnetwork.com

https://medium.com/@laneselman/how-italian-sagre-inspired-the-culinary-breeding-networks-joyful-celebrations-of-local-vegetables-f4c5a5a909c9

Dr Clare Mukankusi, a common bean breeder at the alliance of Diversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), joins us to explain how collaboration in plant breeding can result in practical improvements for a crop’s end-user.

In this episode of the Plant Breeding Stories podcast, Clare shares how a missed opportunity changed her career trajectory from the medical sciences to plant sciences. She details why the common bean is one of the most critical food legumes globally and highlights its crucial importance as a significant source of protein, zinc and iron in diets across Africa. Clare discusses how research and collaboration across-disciplines improves common bean breeding outcomes for practical uses, including producing beans with faster cooking times.

CIAT: https://ciat.cgiar.org/

Pan African Bean Research Alliance: https://ciat.cgiar.org/pabra/

Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture : https://alliancebioversityciat.org/

Transcript - www.PBSInternational.com/podcast

Dr TiFeng Shan, Associate Professor of Marine Biology at the Institute of Oceanology in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, takes us on an underwater adventure to explore seaweed breeding.

In this episode of the Plant Breeding Stories podcast, TiFeng highlights both similarities and differences when breeding aquatic and terrestrial crops. We learn about specific traits of interest for seaweed breeding programs, including increased biomass, early maturity, and improved chemical composition. He also explains how climate change and rising water temperatures could affect seaweed breeding programs in the future. We also learn about the commercial applications of seaweed and why the high-value crop has a bright future as well as exploring how collaboration with land crop breeders and use of genomics technology could accelerate advances in seaweed breeding.

Transcript - www.PBSInternational.com/podcast

Dr Jen Bromley, Head of Client Research and Development at Vertical Future, gives us an inside look at one of the newest movements in agriculture – vertical farming.

In this episode of the Plant Breeding Stories podcast, Jen describes how her early breeding work with potatoes and tobacco eventually led to her current role leading R&D efforts at Vertical Future. She explains how breeding objectives change for plants grown indoors in a controlled environment compared to traditionally grown field crops. We also learn about some of the ways that vertical agriculture can benefit consumers – from supplying more nutritious produce that is locally grown, to reducing supply chain disruptions.

For more information about Jen Bromley and Vertical Future go to:

www.verticalfuture.co.uk

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-bromley/

Transcript - www.PBSInternational.com/podcast

Dr Mark Messmer, VP of Breeding and Product Delivery at CoverCress, Inc, is breeding a well-known winter annual weed into a cash crop that benefits farmers’ bottom line and the environment.

In this episode of the Plant Breeding Stories podcast, Mark explains why this particular project brought him out of retirement after a long, successful career in the seed industry. We learn about the challenges that the CoverCress team has to overcome to breed wild pennycress, a winter annual weed, into a commercial crop. He also discusses the potential markets for this new oilseed crop, including biofuel, animal feed and food production uses, and gives us a glimpse of what it takes to commercialize a new crop through the eyes of a startup company.

To find out more go to

https://covercress.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-messmer-53451873/

Transcript - www.PBSInternational.com/podcast

Dr Anupama Hingane, a plant breeder at ICRISAT, joins us to discuss the significance of pigeon peas as a high protein and drought resistant crop which forms a diet staple in India and shares her hopes for expanding the crop’s marketability with targeted breeding efforts.

In this episode of the Plant Breeding Stories podcast, Anupama shares how a close connection to her family’s farm naturally guided her towards a career in plant breeding. We learn about her early breeding work with cotton and cluster beans and their industrial applications.

She explains why pigeon peas have historically been neglected by breeders despite their nutritional and agronomic benefits, and she shares also shares how the ICRISAT team uses the latest plant breeding technology to develop pigeonpea varieties that are more adaptable to non-native growing environments, which has agronomic and economic benefits for farmers.

Show Notes:

Icrisat: https://www.icrisat.org/

Transcript - www.PBSInternational.com/podcast

Janey Leakey recognized a gap in the seed varieties available to smallholder farmers in Africa, so she founded a seed company to help support more diversification on the farm.

In the second of a three-part episode about East African seed systems, Janey discusses how legumes, cover crops and orphan crops can add value to smallholder farmers in Kenya. We learn about some of the production challenges that local farmers face, including degraded soil, a changing climate and access to affordable seed. She explains why it’s essential for a new variety’s success that it is commercially feasible for seed companies as well as farmers, and explains the vital role that women play in smallholder agriculture in Africa.

Show Notes:

Transcripts of all our episodes are available at www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

www.rajwerafarm.org

https://rajwerafarm.org/leldet/

Daniel Wanjama, founder and coordinator at Seed Savers Network in Kenya, shares how his upbringing in rural Africa set him on a path to help farmers find better ways to nutritional security.

In the third of a three-part episode about East African seed systems, Daniel describes how his personal experience with food security inspired him to found Seed Savers Network, which smallholder African farmers gain access to native crop seeds and prevents local landraces of a vegetables and cereal crops from being lost. He explains how the farmers in his network support each other by producing and sharing cassava, bean and indigenous vegetable seed and discusses how network farmers are trained to help ensure that they distribute high-quality seeds. We also learn how intellectual property rights can pose challenges for seed saving programs in Africa.

Show Notes

Transcripts of all our episodes are available at www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

For more information about Daniel Wanjama and Seed Savers Network go to https://seedsaverskenya.org