b'A look at seed industry developments around the globe.Australian multi-partnerSTATUS AUSTRALIA speed breeding to identifycrop on my farm and on grain initiative to improveChickpea, lentil and fabaand stack novel and superiorfarms across the country, said crop yield and Canadabean growers across AustraliaDNA variants for yield andCody Glenn, CBRC Chair and can expect significantly moreyield-related traits. He saysfarmer from Climax, SK. We announces national productive crops within theby incorporating geneticare really pleased to have this barley cluster. next decade due to a newdiversity from other lan- long-term research funding collaborative, internationaldraces and employing thethat will help keep barley a research project to improveaforementioned advancedprofitable and sustainable crop yields. breeding techniques and AI,option in our crop rotations.The $11.02 million multi- we believe we can achieveAAFC is investing up partner investment includesa 1.5% increase in geneticto $5.25 million through $6.1m from Grains Researchgain, which would be unprec- the AgriScience Program and Development Corporationedented. They will be col-Clusters Component, an (GRDC) for the achievinglaborating with nationalinitiative under the Sustainable improved genetic gain forpulse breeding programs,Canadian Agricultural yield in chickpea, faba beanincluding Chickpea BreedingPartnership. Additionally, over and lentil using genetic diver- Australia, the National Lentil$4.3 million will come from 12 sity project, led by MurdochBreeding Program based inproducer and private organi-University. This will seeVictoria and the University ofzations across the country. Australian pulse breeders gainAdelaide-led National FabaThe Canadian barley access to advanced knowl- Bean Breeding Program. industry must look to the edge, tools and technologies,future and ensure barley is and novel sources of germ- a competitive crop choice plasm to broaden geneticSTATUS CANADA for farmers in terms of yield, diversity in pulse cultivars andAgriculture and Agri-Foodpest and disease resistance ultimately drive yield gain. Canada announced a newand crop quality, said Jill Project leader ProfessorCanadian National BarleyMcDonald, CBRC President Rajeev Varshney FRS, direc- Cluster, a significant initiativeand SaskBarley Executive tor of the Centre for Crop andaimed at advancing barleyDirector. Research conducted Food Innovation at Murdochproduction in Canada. With athrough this Cluster will help University, says chickpea,value of $9.6 million over fiveus meet these challenges lentil and faba bean produc- years, this Cluster will drivehead on by building on the tion is currently hamstrungresearch efforts to enhanceadvances we made in the due to limited genetic diver- the competitiveness and resil- previous Cluster and ensuring sity, resulting in meagre yieldience of the Canadian barleybarley can remain productive improvement of less than 0.5industry. and sustainable. SWper cent each year. The Barley Cluster repre-Ultimately, we wantsents a united front in secur-to develop high-yielding,ing the future of the barley climate-resilient chickpea,value chain. Administered lentil and faba bean varie- by the Canadian Barley ties which can deliver greaterResearch Coalition (CBRC), profitability to growers acrossthe new Barley Cluster will Australia, he says. With thisfund research projects that investment, we will be able toadvance feed barley, barley implement modern genom- genetics, agronomy, disease ics approaches coupled withresistance and sustainability huge genetic diversity. to make it a more resilient and Varshney says research- profitable crop for Canadian ers will use genomic predic- farmers and end users.tion, artificial intelligence andBarley is an important 46/ SEEDWORLD.COMLATAM'