Agricultural Biotechnology: Breeding corn for sustainability - High-quality corn for low-input farming systems
Seedquest
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Sharon Durham, (301) 504-1611, sharon.durham@ars.usda.gov
Here’s the excerpt from a great article by Sharon Durham of ARS News Service, published at Seedquest regarding agricultural biotechnology…
To help family farmers and seed producers better meet market demands and remain independent and profitable, a new initiative is under way. Spearheaded by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant geneticist Linda Pollak, it’s being called the Breeding High-Quality Corn for Sustainable, Low-Input Farming Systems--or HQ-LIFS--project.
Pollak and other scientists in the ARS Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit, Ames, Iowa, are collaborating on HQ-LIFS with Iowa State University scientists at Ames and the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in East Troy, Wisconsin. The Practical Farmers of Iowa help with on-farm testing.
The goal of HQ-LIFS is to boost corn's nutritional content while making it more compatible with sustainable farming systems. The researchers mainly focus on breeding new plants that will provide smaller scale producers with corn, or maize, containing specific traits expected to soon be in high demand--such as for better organic feed grains and specialty uses. Corn varieties for feed and specialty markets that can be grown using small amounts of fertilizer are crucial….
…Read more about the research in the July 2007 issue of Agricultural Research magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul07/corn0707.htm
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
Full article at Seedquest .
