Plant Breeding Stories

Wong Choo Kien talks about the “magical crop”, oil palm, and his work as Head of Crop Improvement Division for Applied Agricultural Resources. With 85% of the world’s palm oil coming from Malaysia and its neighbour Indonesia, this plant has significance not just for the history and economies of these two countries, but for the entire global food system.

Mr Wong describes evidence for a 10,000 year history of the palm’s use for food in Africa, and how even working with the world’s highest yielding oil crop there is work to be done to develop new characteristics. He also talks about his sense of loyalty to the community of oil palm breeders and the importance of people - the wisdom of investing in development, and the need to encourage young people to consider a career in agriculture.

A transcript of this podcast is available at www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

Find out more about AAR via their websites: http://www.aarsb.com.my

Laurie McKenzie, Research & Education Associate with the Washington State-based Organic Seed Alliance, develops new crop varieties for organic production systems. A typical day for her might include evaluating breeding trials in the field, collaborating with seed companies and farmers to establish breeding priorities, or sharing the latest seed research at an industry conference.

In this episode of Plant Breeding Stories, Ms McKenzie shares how she was inspired to pursue plant breeding after working at a community-supported-agriculture farm and a seed production farm. She shares with us her the people who shaped her career and her passion for her work while also explaining how breeding for conventional and organic systems both differ and complement each other in solving food insecurity challenges. She digs into what traits she breeds for to meet the needs of the organic market, and reveals her proudest career achievement — spoiler alert, it involves very colorful carrots.

A transcript of this podcast is available at www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

Find more about Laurie's work here:

Twitter: @Seed_Alliance

Steve McKeand, Emeritus Professor of Forest Genetics at North Carolina State University, has spent his career improving tree genetics for forest plantations. Each year more than 250,000 hectares of trees are planted using genetics originating from the Cooperative Tree Improvement program at North Carolina State, making it the largest forest tree planting program in the world. Prof. McKeand credits collaboration between the university, landowners and private companies for the program’s success.

In this episode of Plant Breeding Stories, we explore how the cooperative model for tree improvement originated in the southern United States. Prof McKeand talks about the traits tree breeders are particularly interested in improving, and discusses why patience is not just a virtue, but a necessity in forestry. He also explains how tree breeding tools and technology have changed since his work began and how forest plantations can help preserve more diverse ecosystems.

A transcript of this podcast is available at www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

Find more of Steve's work here:

Twitter: @NCSU_TIP

Website: https://www.treeimprovement.org

Dr. Pete Iannetta, agroecologist with the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, has taken a non-traditional path to plant science. Fishing, aquaculture,teaching and social care were all part of his route to plant biology and ecology. Today, his work at the James Hutton Institute focuses on the utility of legumes in production and semi-natural systems to improve agricultural sustainability.

In this episode of Plant Breeding Stories, Iannetta shares how his research on legume production and processing led to working on producing a carbon-neutral Scottish gin, Nadar. He also discusses his quest to breed out nitrogen fixation in legume crops and talks about how his broad life experiences and background in ecology gives him a systems perspective on the the connections between social sciences, economics and agriculture.

A transcript of this podcast is available at www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

Find more about Pete and his work here:

Twitter: @AgroEcoAtJHI

@JamesHuttonInst

"How can intellectual property and biotechnology laws affect innovation in the plant breeding industry? It's a question that Canadian independent plant breeder Jodi Souter seeks to answer as a Nuffield Farming Scholar. As one of only about 20 scholars per year, Souter plans to travel the world to learn more about how regulations can promote or stifle innovation in the food and agriculture industries.

In this episode, we’ll learn more about Souter’s project and how she forged an entrepreneurial path in the plant breeding industry to launch J4 Agri-Science. Along the way, she'll share how growing up on a farm helped shape her career and why she credits long-distance running for the determination and competitiveness she relies on to fuel her business success."

A transcript of this podcast is available at www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

Find more of Jodi Souter here:

Twitter: @JodiSouter

Professor Daljit S. Virk’s plant breeding career spans five incredible decades. Growing up in a small village in Pakistan, he was surrounded by agriculture and was interested in it at an early age. He chose to

study plant breeding for his MSC degree after being convinced by a friend that it could have great potential to serve farmers. Just after he finished his MSC degree, the Green Revolution began, and all

eyes were on agriculture.

In this episode of Plant Breeding Stories, Virk shares how plant breeding technology has changed since his early days before the wide use of computers. He’ll share how he used unconventional and innovative plant breeding techniques to develop rice varieties that benefitted millions of farmers in India and discuss what opportunities he sees for the future of plant breeding.

A transcript of this podcast can be found on the PBS International website www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

You can read more about Dr Virk here: https://www.sikhnet.com/news/dr-daljit-singh-virk-receive-obe

Entrepreneurs Will Pelton and Nick Kral, founders of Phytoform Labs, explain the genome editing technology that is the foundation of their business and share why they are excited about their platform's potential to deliver new crop traits efficiently, safely and sustainably.

Introducing a new trait into a crop can take years with traditional breeding methods. Pelton and Kral discuss speeding up the process and improving accuracy by adopting recent genome editing developments in plant breeding technology, akin to the well known CRISPR-Cas9, and describe how they're using artificial intelligence to build new exploration tools to develop novel crop traits.

As the global regulatory framework for new breeding technologies continues to evolve, the founders of Phytoform Labs explain how they’re working to make the most impact with their technology and why they hope to improve the sustainability of the agricultural supply chain, starting with trait development in the Solanaceae family.

A transcript of this podcast can be found on the PBS International website www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

A transcript of this podcast is available at www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

Find out more about Phytoform labs here:

Twitter: @PhytoformLabs

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/phytoform-labs/

Dr. Alison Bentley, Program Director of the Global Wheat Program at CIMMYT, shares how her work in wheat breeding delivers more robust varieties that meet farmer and consumer needs around the world. She describes the process of pre-breeding, introducing advantageous commercial traits from native or wild type plant species to increase the genetic diversity critical for any successful plant breeding program.

Find more of Alison Bentley here:

Twitter: @AlisonRBentley

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-bentley-98861959/

In this episode, Bentley will discuss her work in wheat which spans three continents — Australia, Europe and North America. We’ll follow along as she describes visiting some of the earliest sites of human civilization near Turkey, where plant domestication began & searching for wild relatives of grains in Australian grasslands. Bentley also talks about her new role at CIMMYT and why she’s excited about its global, cross-disciplinary focus.

A transcript of this podcast can be found on the PBS International website www.pbsinternational.com/podcast

Find out more about Dr Bentley on Twitter, @AlisonRBentley, and more about CIMMYT via their website https://www.cimmyt.org

Welcome to the Plant Breeding Stories podcast. This is a short teaser for the upcoming podcast series. If you like what you hear, click subscribe to the podcast and you'll get the next episode delivered direct to your device when it's released.