Agriculture Online
08-22-06
New plant sciences key to meeting global crop demand
"Epic gains" in production must be made, DuPont VP says
To meet the growing global demand for crops, public and private researchers
must develop a more complete understanding of plant genes and their
interactions, DuPont Vice President Bill Niebur challenged the International Plant
Breeding Symposium today.
"We must make epic gains in crop production to meet the global demand for
food, feed, fiber, fuel and materials in the years ahead," said Niebur, who leads
DuPont Crop Genetics Research and Development. "Science is up to the
challenge."
Niebur noted that plant scientists helped increase corn production by 45% over
the last 40 years while the area planted grew by just 4.8%. Looking forward, the
world must double food production on the same amount of land by 2050. New
and improving knowledge of plant genes will make it possible to do that, said
Niebur.
"We have made incredible gains with plant breeding based on what we can see
and measure. With the information we have today on the inner workings of those
plants, we can continue to achieve increased productivity and better products,
with fewer resources," said Niebur.
Specifically, Niebur said the improvements will be possible through molecular
breeding, or understanding genes and their interactions; trait enhancements,
both through native variation and biotech opportunities; increased knowledge of
traits through new rapid evaluation tools; computer modeling; and plant breeding.
"With 98% of the population growth between now and 2050 expected to come
from developing countries, it is important for scientists to improve crops by
applying the latest plant technology," said Niebur. "The technology is size neutral
and there is an incredible and growing wealth of publicly available information on
plant genes."
For example, DuPont, through its subsidiary, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.,
contributed corn and wheat genomics information to public databases. The
company has also worked to advance public plant breeding capacity.
The International Plant Breeding Symposium brings together public and private
plant scientists from developing and developed countries. The conference is
organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT),
Iowa State University and Pioneer among others.