b'pests, genetic diversity within the sor-ghum species is also beneficial to the bottom line of a producer. Sexton-Bowser says that the use of diversity, in combination with technology and data, can provide greater leverage for the farming community than any of the three used as a stand-alone solution. Finding the right combination of genetic diversity, technology and data is a goal the Collaborative Sorghum Investment Program (CSIP) continues to strive for. We each only have so many opportu-nities to roll the dice in making improve-ments in the crops that we grow, the average farmer has around 50 growing seasons that they will help manage, she says. So how do we best advantage our crop improvement programs? We talk about big data and then we start to break down that conversation and decipher the value of that data and the ability of those that work in crop breed-ing and genetics to take and parametrize their observations realistically: to the actual environments and fields that farm-ers will be managing their technologiesDiversity, combined with technology and data, can provide greater leverage for the farming with. That allows us to make much morecommunity.efficient gains in taking this vast pool of genetic diversity that today we reallytion in our national seed bank, 85% ordistributions provided by the National arent fully exploiting to help farmers. higher are photo sensitive, says JeffPlant Germplasm System. The process of Whats in the seed bag is impor- Dahlberg, director of the University ofconversion of exotic material to materials tant to farmers, Sexton-Bowser says.Californias Kearney Agricultural Researchuseable by breeding programs is long and The critical role in working with geneticand Exension Center. We have no ideatedious. To generate a sorghum type with improvement is the need to prioritize.what potential benefits those accessionsthe wild diversity in a short, photo period Certainly there is vast opportunity, buthold because they have not been photo- sensitive plant, multiple cycles of grow the need to identify and prioritize is cru- period converted to grow in temperateout and selection are utilized. The long cial to moving products out the door andclimates. Of the 40,000 plus, I wouldand tedious process, still in use today, developing them into a valuable technol- be surprised if we were using over 100crosses exotic parent plants in Puerto ogy that goes into the seed bag. of those genetic lines in our croppingRico; after harvest, seed from the cross That is what the CSIP project workssystems. is sent to Texas where it is grown out. to do: create momentum in the intersec- One of the greatest challenges facingDuring the U.S. growing season, selection tion between the innovation and practical,sorghums genetic diversity is the timepressure is directed toward short, flower-field level application.it takes for a genetic line to progressing plants. The plant selections are then through the conversion process. As asent back to Puerto Rico to create crosses Challenges of Increasing Geneticcrop that was first domesticated in Africa,to the genetic parents again. The process Diversitysorghum requires a tropical environment,was repeated until a plant that resem-As part of the USDA Agriculturewith short day lengths, to flowerabled and mimicked the exotic parent was Research Service, National Plantrequirement prohibitive of growth in theproduced: short plant height and did not Germplasm System, the Plant GeneticU.S. temperate zones. require short days to flower. The conver-Resources Conservation Unit preservesDuring the 1960s, an effort began tosion process, although not time efficient, the largest sorghum germplasm collec- convert tropical, photo period sensitivedid allow U.S. farmers to begin looking at tion in the world. Unfortunately, fewerlines to photo period insensitive lines, sosorghum lines from around the world and than half have been genotyped.that the plants would flower in the Unitedthe benefits that exotic sorghum genetics Of the 40,000 plus accessions ofStates. The conversions used acces- could potentially provide.sorghum we currently have in preserva- sions collected by academics as well asAdditional challenges to the genetic 58/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2019'