Location: Crop Production and Protection
Project Number: 0500-00053-005-170-G
Project Type: Grant
Start Date: May 1, 2024
End Date: Apr 30, 2026
Objective:
Increasing productivity of wheat and barley in the Southeast will require stacking durable resistance genes against ever-evolving Fusarium head blight and adapting the crops to highly variable, stressful environments. This project will lead an effort to develop the next-generation modern cultivars through breeding, predictive modeling and product profiling that prioritizes the “must-have” traits and “value-added” traits for targeting different market segments in North Carolina production environments. New cultivars with durable Fusarium head blight resistance, combined with efficient nitrogen-use and better adaptation to temperature fluctuation are most likely to be productive in a wide range of environments.
Approach:
We proposing to build off past success while looking to implement new breeding technologies that can accelerate breeding cycles, increase the number of lines screened, improve selection accuracy, and scaling up data collection processes at a reduced cost. We will also lead the effort to generate the next-generation big data and further improve
predictive modeling for deployment of new climate-resilient cultivars adapted to North Carolina. We will identify and incorporate new genes/traits/germplasm for Fusarium head blight resistance into North Carolina adapted cultivars, in combination with adaptation to early heading, freeze damage, photoperiod sensitivity and better nitrogen-use efficiency.
