Toward plant breeding for multicrop systems

Moore, Virginia; Peters, Tessa E.; Schlautman, Brandon; Brummer, E. Charles

doi:10.1073/pnas.2205792119

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…The effectiveness of IC systems is typically evaluated using performance metrics such as the Land Equivalent Ratio, instead of solely focusing on the yield of individual crop species (Bedoussac and Justes, 2011;Zustovi et al, 2024). Although there is ongoing debate among researchers regarding the development of appropriate IC breeding methods, there remains a lack of evidence of their practical feasibility (Bourke et al, 2021;Moore et al, 2022;Weih et al, 2022a, Weih et al, 2022bMoore et al, 2023). While there have been a few studies aimed at breeding legumes for intercropping, such as those by (Annicchiarico et al, 2021) and (Ergon and Bakken, 2022), these methods do not address the simultaneous improvement of both crops involved in the intercropping system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing monocrop breeding strategies for intercrops

Dubey,

Zustovi,

Landschoot

et al. 2024

Front. Plant Sci.

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Intercropping is considered advantageous for many reasons, including increased yield stability, nutritional value and the provision of various regulating ecosystem services. However, intercropping also introduces diverse competition effects between the mixing partners, which can negatively impact their agronomic performance. Therefore, selecting complementary intercropping partners is the key to realizing a well-mixed crop production. Several specialized intercrop breeding concepts have been proposed to support the development of complementary varieties, but their practical implementation still needs to be improved. To lower this adoption threshold, we explore the potential of introducing minor adaptations to commonly used monocrop breeding strategies as an initial stepping stone towards implementing dedicated intercrop breeding schemes. While we acknowledge that recurrent selection for reciprocal mixing abilities is likely a more effective breeding paradigm to obtain genetic progress for intercrops, a well-considered adaptation of monoculture breeding strategies is far less intrusive concerning the design of the breeding programme and allows for balancing genetic gain for both monocrop and intercrop performance. The main idea is to develop compatible variety combinations by improving the monocrop performance in the two breeding pools in parallel and testing for intercrop performance in the later stages of selection. We show that the optimal stage for switching from monocrop to intercrop testing should be adapted to the specificity of the crop and the heritability of the traits involved. However, the genetic correlation between the monocrop and intercrop trait performance is the primary driver of the intercrop breeding scheme optimization process.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing monocrop breeding strategies for intercrops

Dubey,

Zustovi,

Landschoot

et al. 2024

Front. Plant Sci.

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“…Moore et al (2023) explored a range of multi-cropping options including inter-crops, strip crops, relay crops, cover crops etc. for increasing diversity temporally and spatially in fields in the context of plant breeding.…”

Section: Current Practices To Diversify Agroecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is potential for their wider use in other countries with similar agroecologies such as in hilly areas where mechanization is not possible. On a wider scale, complex multi-cropping is largely restricted to grass-legume pastures for grazing or forages for other feed uses and cover crop mixtures, although research is progressing on breeding for such complex systems (Moore et al, 2023). Diversified multi-cropping systems have potential to simultaneously support productivity and sustainability goals.…”

Section: Current Practices To Diversify Agroecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current agricultural diversification strategies are already agroecological

Lenné

2023

Outlook Agric

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Modern agriculture, especially monocultures, is increasingly blamed by proponents of agroecology for loss of biodiversity in agroecosystems through loss of natural vegetation and crop genetic diversity. However, loss of natural vegetation to agriculture has slowed in recent years, and the claim for 75% loss of crop genetic diversity due to the widespread use of improved crop varieties lacks evidence. The main objective of this perspective paper is to identify and analyze the kinds of diversity already developed by agricultural research in the context of their function, need and relevance to particular agroecological elements and principles related to biodiversity. The paper shows that biodiversity is already incorporated into agroecosystems in a multitude of ways such as improved crop varieties with functional traits; crop mixtures and dual-purpose crops in monocultures; inter-crops, strip crops or relay crops; cover crops; crop rotations; field margins; landscape diversification; crop-livestock systems; and agroforestry. Emphasis is also given to crop-associated biodiversity above ground and soil biodiversity. The paper highlights that more research is needed to (a) breed crops for multi-cropping systems; (b) improve understanding of how components of diversity interact within or across systems and scales; (c) understand the role of soil biodiversity in soil function; and (d) successfully use crop-associated biodiversity to manage pests and beneficial organisms. In the future, the promotion of agroecological principles should incorporate inputs from crop breeders, agronomists, ecologists and crop protectionists for the benefit of farmers, or such principles will remain aspirational.

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“…The association of legumes with other crops can exploit plant functional diversity to provide more resilient yields, enhancing ecosystem services (Martin-Guay et al, 2018;Weih et al, 2021). However, specific breeding for intercropping is required, particularly for legumes as they exhibit poor competitive ability (Annicchiarico et al, 2019a;Moore et al, 2022Moore et al, , 2023. Traits increasing resource acquisition are more relevant for monocrops, whereas those that optimize complementarity or facilitation are more relevant for intercrops (Costanzo and Bàrberi, 2014).…”

Section: Improved Competitive Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The agroecological transition requires greater legume cultivation either in rotations or intercrops, each one requiring specific breeding objectives which would include having greater adaptation to low input conditions, with an emphasis on organic conditions, but not limited to that, with greater nutrient use efficiency and greater tolerance to major biotic and abiotic stresses as leading priorities (Rubiales et al, 2021a;Moore et al, 2023). Standard breeding methods, from classical selection to genomic assistedbreeding supported with rapidly developing biotechnological approaches remain valid to develop breeding lines better meeting agroecological requirements, but there is a need to focus on new traits and to explore wider genetic germplasm.…”

Section: Breeding Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant breeding is needed to meet agroecological requirements: Legume crops as a case study

Rubiales

2023

Outlook Agric

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Legume-based cropping systems are regaining interest due to the environmental services and the variety of food and feed uses they provide, this having special interest in agroecological systems. There are many legume crops that can be adopted but focused breeding is needed to better meet the specific requirements of each system, especially in the situation of changing climate and often stressful environments. Standard breeding methods remain valid, from classical selection, to genomic assisted-breeding, profiting from the modern biotechnological and genomic approaches which are rapidly developing for most legume crops. Rather than focusing on the tools, emphasis is needed on the breeding targets, which might be different from those of high input agriculture such as improved response to symbiosis, nutrient and water use efficiency and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses becoming priorities. Breeding for these traits requires the infusion of genetic diversity from landraces or wild relatives by pre-breeding. Prospects and constraints are discussed.

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Toward plant breeding for multicrop systems

Cited by 17 publications

References 64 publications

Harnessing monocrop breeding strategies for intercrops

Harnessing monocrop breeding strategies for intercrops

Current agricultural diversification strategies are already agroecological

Plant breeding is needed to meet agroecological requirements: Legume crops as a case study

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