Work like this is always welcome to see. What we need to see isgenetic engineering that adapts desert plant strategies into ourgrassland crops. A thick blade that holds water sounds like a dealmaker costing little if any extra plant energy. Such a plant cangrab moisture and hold it through a long dry spell. It may even makethe blade more palatable and useful to ruminants.
Selection will be helpful, but mostly marginally.
A genetic strategy could be applied across all grains and allowcropping in lands far more arid and make irrigation far moreefficient. We know that desert plants can do this quite well.
Now if we could figure out how to produce a plant that happens toabsorb moisture out of the atmosphere late at night.
Building betterbarley
by Staff Writers
Edmonton, Canada(SPX) Dec 18, 2012
http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Building_better_barley_999.html
As one of the top 10barley producers in the world, Canada faces a problem of adapting tothe 'new normal' of a warmer, drier climate. The 2012 growing seasonwas considered an average year on the Canadian Prairies, "but westill had a summer water deficit, and it is that type of condition weare trying to work with," said Scott Chang, a professor of soilscience in the University of Alberta's Department of RenewableResources in Edmonton, Canada.
Chang teamed withfellow crop scientist Anthony Anyia of Alberta Innovates - TechnologyFutures in 2006, following a severe drought in 2002 that droppedaverage crop yield in Alberta by about half.
They are exploring thegenetic makeup of barley and how the grain crop-a Canadian stapleused for beer malt and animal feed-can be made more efficient in itswater use and more productive.
One of their lateststudies, published in the journal Theoretical and Applied Genetics,explores how to increase yield in barley crops while using lesswater.
By studying the carbonisotope compositions of barley plants and their relationship withwater-use efficiency, the researchers developed tools that plantbreeders can use to improve selection efficiency for morewater-efficient varieties.
The latest findingsstem from an ongoing collaboration that is ultimately aimed atbringing farmers a more stable breed of the plant that has lessreliance on water and is less vulnerable to climate change.
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