b'PARTNER CONTENTEmbracing Technology to Breed Better PulsesBy: Jaenet ter Schure, Pulse Breeder, Limagrain Cereals Research CanadaI ts amazing how quickly new technologies come along anding in Europe and in other crops such as maize for decades. The make a huge impact. quicker we can bring new high-value varieties to farmers, the bet-When I first started working in the seed industry in 2021,ter, so were looking at ways of using technology to shave years off we would manually pick all the green peas from a bag of seed. Itthe development pipeline. was labor intensive and time consuming. Now I work with a colorFor one, were relying on the greenhouse much more, which sorter that automatically separates green peas from yellow peas.allow us to extend the development season into winter, spread out In just three years, a process that was once slow and tedious islabor, have more cycles throughout the year, and make selections now super-efficient and 99 percent accurate thanks to advancesindoors before validating them in the field, and therefore gener-in technology.ally speed up the process. In 2022, Limagrain partnered with Saskatchewan PulseSecondly, a winter season is critical because the multiplica-Growers to start a brand-new pea and lentil breeding programtion rate in peas and lentils is relatively low. One pea plant can in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This new farmer-driven breedinggive around 40 seeds and a lentil about 100 seeds. This creates a collaboration attracted new investment, expertise, and capacitybottleneck by having too few seeds for multi-location testing. This to pea and lentil breeding in Western Canada and brings togethercan be overcome by increasing the seeds during the winter season two farmer-led organizations. so we can test the performance of the new varieties in multiple Since we kicked off our pulse breeding program at Limagrain Ce- locations the following year. We also make use of a contra season reals Research Canada in 2022, weve worked closely with Saskatch- for seed production, so we can hand over breeder seed for new ewan Pulse Growers to align our breeding priorities with the needsvarieties to seed companies faster.of farmers. When I walk a plot with a pulse producer, one of my firstThirdly, genomic selection is relatively new for pulses, but questions is always, what traits do you want me to breed for?other Limagrain breeders have doing it for years and we can lean Yield improvement is top of the list, but root rot resistanceheavily on the know-how developed on those larger crops within is also critical and one of my main goals is to breed resistantLimagrain to benefit our pulse breeding program. That will varieties, especially to Aphanomyces, which can stay in the soilinclude using genomic tools to predict and track new quantitative for up to 10-20+ years and have a profound impact on yields. Intrait loci (QTLs). Genomic selection is already routine in wheat Saskatchewan, where farmers like to include a pulse in a three- orand its going to be huge for pulses. Weve already started doing four-year rotation, thats a big deal. Other priorities include devel- some marker selection, which will help us predict pea and lentil oping a new herbicide tolerance system for lentils and breedingselections and crosses before they hit the fields. Having the mark-pea varieties with less seed coat breakage.ers for root rots allows us to select for resistance earlier and speed Thankfully, we are part of Limagrain, a global seed company,up our whole breeding cycle even more, facilitating the roll out of which means we benefit from research theyve been conduct- new high-value seed varieties to farmers much more quickly.FEBRUARY 2025SEEDWORLD.COM /13'