{"id":1657,"date":"2018-08-29T17:18:14","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T09:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/?p=1657"},"modified":"2018-08-29T17:18:14","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T09:18:14","slug":"precision-breeding-crucial-maintain-peanut-yield-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2018\/08\/29\/precision-breeding-crucial-maintain-peanut-yield-trend\/","title":{"rendered":"Precision breeding crucial to maintain peanut yield trend"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As American farmers and ranchers step up to help meet the global challenge of producing 70 percent more food by the year 2050 to meet nutrition needs of some 9 billion people, peanuts will play a role.<\/p>\n

But to meet that demand, says USDA-ARS peanut breeder Kelly Chamberlin, Stillwater, Okla., the industry must build on the gains over the past half century \u2014 doubling average peanut yields.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we continue to sustain the increase in yields?\u201d Chamberlin asked peanut scientists and industry representatives at the recent American Peanut Research and Education Society (APRES) 50th annual meeting in Williamsburg, Va.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we need to?\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But achieving that goal will require an investment in time, money and training \u201ca new crop of peanut breeders,\u201d in advanced technology, including using molecular marker assisted breeding techniques, she says.<\/p>\n

Chamberlin, in a presentation titled Not Your Grandma\u2019s Goobers paid homage to the work peanut breeders accomplished over the past 50 years, but also spelled out what the industry needs to maintain that trend.<\/p>\n

Technology not available in 1968 will move the mark higher.<\/p>\n

Currently, breeders are working in10 public peanut breeding programs, university and USDA-ARS, across the U.S. Peanut Belt. Having breeding programs scattered across the peanut producing states, Chamberlin says, preserves the varietal diversity necessary to maintain production.<\/p>\n

\u201cVarieties that work in the Southeast do not work in the Southwest,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe have diverse growing environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Those facilities \u201chave been very productive over the past 50 years,\u201d she says, \u201cwith improved yield, maturity, pest management and grades. Breeding work may have averted a disaster from tomato spotted wilt virus in the Southeast and from Sclerotinia blight in the Southwest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other disease resistance work has been instrumental in increased productivity. \u201cNow, we\u2019re looking at high oleic varieties as well as continued emphasis on disease resistance, yields, maturity and grades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Challenges Loom<\/strong><\/p>\n

The challenge of maintaining that trend includes a shrinking number of people involved in production agriculture, a growing population, but not an increase in available land. \u201cU.S. acreage for agriculture has remained steady,\u201d Chamberlin says. Also, the peanut production areas, though they have changed some over the past few decades, are not likely to change much, absent some climate or pest issue.<\/p>\n

Technology, including molecular marker breeding, will be important aspects in maintaining the peanut yield tend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are on the verge of being able to use marker-assisted selection in peanut breeding,\u201d Chamberlin says. \u201cWe need to use precision breeding in peanuts,\u201d technology already used in soybean breeding programs.<\/p>\n

The advantages of marker assisted breeding include an abbreviated period to develop new varieties. Advantages, Chamberlin says, include:<\/p>\n