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Un-tapping Crop Biodiversity for Climate Change and Sustainable Food Production

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CIMMYT
CIMMYT

The Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative aims to characterize genetic resources from crop genebanks to make them more useful for plant breeding programs addressing climate change and food security. SeeD will sequence the genomes of 25,000 maize and 40,000 wheat accessions, and combine this with phenotypic data to create open-access databases. This will allow breeders to more efficiently utilize biodiversity from genebanks to develop new varieties with improved drought tolerance, heat tolerance, nutrition and other traits. SeeD also aims to build capacity of agricultural scientists and strengthen global partnerships around using crop diversity.

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Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) Un-tapping Crop Biodiversity for Climate Change and Sustainable Food Production Kevin Pixley -- K.Pixley@cgiar.org The World Bank, 14 January 2015
CIMMYT’s Mission Sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems for global food security and poverty reduction
“The seriousness or magnitude of the world food problem should not be underestimated. Recent success in expanding wheat, rice and maize production in Asian countries offers the possibility of buying 20-30 years of time” N.E. Borlaug, 1969 – A Green Revolution Yields a Golden Harvest Borlaug’s 1969 prophecy
“In the next 50 years we will need to produce as much food as has been consumed over our entire human history.” Megan Clark CEO of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Australia
US Census Bureau & International Data Base, 2011 Population growth projections by region
General scientific consensus on climate change: Tropical areas will be strongly affected (drought + heat) Sources: Krechowicz, et. al., 2010; Lobell et al 2011
The World Bank, Food Price Watch, August 2012
Concern: Food and energy price inflation may exceed income growth of the poor
Biodiversity – the genetic resources increasingly only found in CIMMYT’s and other germplasm banks – can help breeding programs bridge the gap between current and needed rates of productivity gains.
 Current breeding materials contain only a fraction of the useful genetic variation available [e.g. like the visible portion of an iceberg].  Much of the needed diversity exists, like needles in a haystack, on the shelves of gene banks.  Genomic tools enable us to search for and use valuable diversity much more effectively.
Un-tapping Crop Biodiversity for Climate Change and Sustainable Food Production
SeeD’s Vision of Success: the wealth contained in the world’s genetic resources is ‘unlocked’ for breeders globally to make new varieties ≈ 28,000 maize ≈ 140,000 wheat Genetic resources
Heat tolerance Drought tolerance Nutritional value New diseases SeeD priorities
Increasing CO2 threatens human nutrition Percentage change in nutrients at elevated (546-586 ppm) (note: 550 ppm is expected by 2060) CO2 relative to ambient (ca 400 ppm) CO2 Myers et al., 2014. Nature
Un-tapping Crop Biodiversity for Climate Change and Sustainable Food Production
Appliance of cutting edge science – why now? Ed Buckler, USDA-Cornell (SeeD partner) 1993 1,500 bp/day 2012 38,400,000,000 bp/day And cheaper… What does it mean to get 25-Million-Fold Better?
SeeD – high-density genetic profiles  25,000 Maize ( ̴90%)  40,000 Wheat ( ̴30%)  Sequencing the entire “library” of maize and wheat is now feasible.  DNA sequence differences underlie useful variation to address current and future challenges to plant breeding.
Un-tapping Crop Biodiversity for Climate Change and Sustainable Food Production
Genebanks = supermarket Genebanks today are like supermarkets full of tins without labels; finding what you need is like searching for a needle in a haystack. SeeD will label the genebank tins with genotypic and phenotypic information making it much easier to use this biodiversity in breeding programs.
Un-tapping Crop Biodiversity for Climate Change and Sustainable Food Production
Un-tapping Crop Biodiversity for Climate Change and Sustainable Food Production
Use biodiversity for bio-fortification Zinc deficiency afflicts ̴2 billion people Fishing in the wheat gene bank: evaluated ~15,000 landraces Numberoflandraces Zinc (ppm)  Stunted & underweight children  Brain development disorders
SeeD develops bridging germplasm – “half- way” between accessions and elite varieties.
ARS agronomist Cecil Salmon acquired seeds from Japan in 1946. ARS plant breeder Orville Vogel worked with it for 13 years. Borlaug crossed these with Mexico's best wheats. Borlaug's semi-dwarf wheats enabled India to launch its Green Revolution. Wheat production doubled by 1970 and tripled by 1982. + 30 YEARS! Successful use of ‘dwarf’ gene
Successful use of ‘exotic’ sources of high provitamin A 3 high provitamin A hybrids released in Zambia in 2012 Sources from Thailand and USA - 2003 9 years from source to release
Un-tapping Crop Biodiversity for Climate Change and Sustainable Food Production
• Train a new generation of agricultural scientists  Strategic research  impact-driven research and/for development (R&D)  Rejuvenate interest in agricultural R&D  Huge datasets are a magnet to attract talent to agricultural R&D • Workshops and 1:1 training  Building capacity of scientists entering ag R&D  Enhancing capacity in the existing generation of ag R&D scientists • Links to post-graduate programs  opportunities for many MSc and PhD projects Capacity-strengthening: facilitating equity by enabling access to information and knowledge
Why CIMMYT?  Most extensive wheat & maize collections in the world.  >50 years working with maize & wheat genetic resources.  Unparalleled network of partners and testing sites around the world.
SeeD has a plan, with a timeline for delivering products
Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) Our current challenge: to attract global support for an initiative with truly global impact  Initiated in 2011  Mostly funded by the Mexican government  Four Components 1. Molecular & phenotypic characterization  open-access database(s) 2. Informatics tools & knowledge extraction 3. Bridging germplasm 4. Capacity building Progress snapshot 2014 – Valuable biodiversity has been identified (tar spot, zinc, heat, drought) – Foundations established for more and continued value generation – Extensive molecular data – Phenotypic data “important momentum” – Tools platform in development – Bridging germplasm started – Capacity building plans initiated
“We know that if we don't confront climate change, there will be no hope of ending poverty or boosting shared prosperity.” “…lay out clear policy frameworks for how forestry and agriculture can achieve the needs of nutrition and food security, the support of rural livelihoods, and reduced emissions from land use.” “…insured losses from weather-related events are growing… …fully 75 percent of catastrophe-related losses worldwide are still uninsured.” “…the longer we delay in tackling climate change, the higher the cost will be to do the right thing for our planet and for our children.” “The costs of inaction are rising.” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim Speech at the Council on Foreign Relations Washington D.C., United States December 8, 2014
Partners voices • “SeeD will realize breeding gains that are impossible to reach through traditional means” • “A truly global public good – it benefits ALL!” • “We want … heat, drought, NUE, yield, quality ….” • “SeeD is the backbone for international efforts in this field” • “SeeD will contribute to breakthroughs in developing new breeding methods” • “A new wave of research, a new way of breeding” CG Consortium Office: “we are fully supportive of this project… these genotyping approaches with accurate phenotyping and pre-breeding will allow to speed up our CGIAR breeding programs for the smallhoders’ benefit…” Global Crop Diversity Trust: “SeeD is a “blueprint” and “foundational initiative” for the Diversity Seek (DivSeek) initiative for other crops.”

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Un-tapping Crop Biodiversity for Climate Change and Sustainable Food Production

  • 1. Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) Un-tapping Crop Biodiversity for Climate Change and Sustainable Food Production Kevin Pixley -- K.Pixley@cgiar.org The World Bank, 14 January 2015
  • 2. CIMMYT’s Mission Sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems for global food security and poverty reduction
  • 3. “The seriousness or magnitude of the world food problem should not be underestimated. Recent success in expanding wheat, rice and maize production in Asian countries offers the possibility of buying 20-30 years of time” N.E. Borlaug, 1969 – A Green Revolution Yields a Golden Harvest Borlaug’s 1969 prophecy
  • 4. “In the next 50 years we will need to produce as much food as has been consumed over our entire human history.” Megan Clark CEO of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Australia
  • 5. US Census Bureau & International Data Base, 2011 Population growth projections by region
  • 6. General scientific consensus on climate change: Tropical areas will be strongly affected (drought + heat) Sources: Krechowicz, et. al., 2010; Lobell et al 2011
  • 7. The World Bank, Food Price Watch, August 2012
  • 8. Concern: Food and energy price inflation may exceed income growth of the poor
  • 9. Biodiversity – the genetic resources increasingly only found in CIMMYT’s and other germplasm banks – can help breeding programs bridge the gap between current and needed rates of productivity gains.
  • 10.  Current breeding materials contain only a fraction of the useful genetic variation available [e.g. like the visible portion of an iceberg].  Much of the needed diversity exists, like needles in a haystack, on the shelves of gene banks.  Genomic tools enable us to search for and use valuable diversity much more effectively.
  • 12. SeeD’s Vision of Success: the wealth contained in the world’s genetic resources is ‘unlocked’ for breeders globally to make new varieties ≈ 28,000 maize ≈ 140,000 wheat Genetic resources
  • 14. Increasing CO2 threatens human nutrition Percentage change in nutrients at elevated (546-586 ppm) (note: 550 ppm is expected by 2060) CO2 relative to ambient (ca 400 ppm) CO2 Myers et al., 2014. Nature
  • 16. Appliance of cutting edge science – why now? Ed Buckler, USDA-Cornell (SeeD partner) 1993 1,500 bp/day 2012 38,400,000,000 bp/day And cheaper… What does it mean to get 25-Million-Fold Better?
  • 17. SeeD – high-density genetic profiles  25,000 Maize ( ̴90%)  40,000 Wheat ( ̴30%)  Sequencing the entire “library” of maize and wheat is now feasible.  DNA sequence differences underlie useful variation to address current and future challenges to plant breeding.
  • 19. Genebanks = supermarket Genebanks today are like supermarkets full of tins without labels; finding what you need is like searching for a needle in a haystack. SeeD will label the genebank tins with genotypic and phenotypic information making it much easier to use this biodiversity in breeding programs.
  • 22. Use biodiversity for bio-fortification Zinc deficiency afflicts ̴2 billion people Fishing in the wheat gene bank: evaluated ~15,000 landraces Numberoflandraces Zinc (ppm)  Stunted & underweight children  Brain development disorders
  • 23. SeeD develops bridging germplasm – “half- way” between accessions and elite varieties.
  • 24. ARS agronomist Cecil Salmon acquired seeds from Japan in 1946. ARS plant breeder Orville Vogel worked with it for 13 years. Borlaug crossed these with Mexico's best wheats. Borlaug's semi-dwarf wheats enabled India to launch its Green Revolution. Wheat production doubled by 1970 and tripled by 1982. + 30 YEARS! Successful use of ‘dwarf’ gene
  • 25. Successful use of ‘exotic’ sources of high provitamin A 3 high provitamin A hybrids released in Zambia in 2012 Sources from Thailand and USA - 2003 9 years from source to release
  • 27. • Train a new generation of agricultural scientists  Strategic research  impact-driven research and/for development (R&D)  Rejuvenate interest in agricultural R&D  Huge datasets are a magnet to attract talent to agricultural R&D • Workshops and 1:1 training  Building capacity of scientists entering ag R&D  Enhancing capacity in the existing generation of ag R&D scientists • Links to post-graduate programs  opportunities for many MSc and PhD projects Capacity-strengthening: facilitating equity by enabling access to information and knowledge
  • 28. Why CIMMYT?  Most extensive wheat & maize collections in the world.  >50 years working with maize & wheat genetic resources.  Unparalleled network of partners and testing sites around the world.
  • 29. SeeD has a plan, with a timeline for delivering products
  • 30. Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) Our current challenge: to attract global support for an initiative with truly global impact  Initiated in 2011  Mostly funded by the Mexican government  Four Components 1. Molecular & phenotypic characterization  open-access database(s) 2. Informatics tools & knowledge extraction 3. Bridging germplasm 4. Capacity building Progress snapshot 2014 – Valuable biodiversity has been identified (tar spot, zinc, heat, drought) – Foundations established for more and continued value generation – Extensive molecular data – Phenotypic data “important momentum” – Tools platform in development – Bridging germplasm started – Capacity building plans initiated
  • 31. “We know that if we don't confront climate change, there will be no hope of ending poverty or boosting shared prosperity.” “…lay out clear policy frameworks for how forestry and agriculture can achieve the needs of nutrition and food security, the support of rural livelihoods, and reduced emissions from land use.” “…insured losses from weather-related events are growing… …fully 75 percent of catastrophe-related losses worldwide are still uninsured.” “…the longer we delay in tackling climate change, the higher the cost will be to do the right thing for our planet and for our children.” “The costs of inaction are rising.” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim Speech at the Council on Foreign Relations Washington D.C., United States December 8, 2014
  • 32. Partners voices • “SeeD will realize breeding gains that are impossible to reach through traditional means” • “A truly global public good – it benefits ALL!” • “We want … heat, drought, NUE, yield, quality ….” • “SeeD is the backbone for international efforts in this field” • “SeeD will contribute to breakthroughs in developing new breeding methods” • “A new wave of research, a new way of breeding” CG Consortium Office: “we are fully supportive of this project… these genotyping approaches with accurate phenotyping and pre-breeding will allow to speed up our CGIAR breeding programs for the smallhoders’ benefit…” Global Crop Diversity Trust: “SeeD is a “blueprint” and “foundational initiative” for the Diversity Seek (DivSeek) initiative for other crops.”