b"Rising to the Challenge of Climate ChangeNew seed technology and collaboration is helping to keep crops growing as temperatures heat up.Ashley RobinsonIN RECENT YEARS,extreme weather eventshistorical averages arent the most reliable information seem to have become more common as evidentto go off of anymore, Charlie Campbell, growth and with climate change making headlines. As tempera- BizOps lead with ClimateAi, says. tures rise or fall and droughts or deluges become moreOnce the seeds are in the ground, we can look six common, the seed industry is working hard to breedmonths into the future to understand okay, we're seeing seeds which are resilient under changing conditions. a heat wave during the flowering period with like a high There's absolutely a fundamental shift going onprobability. Can we actually plant sooner to then with in the industry at the moment where we're goingthat heat wave to make sure there's enough days to max-from chasing the yield ceiling to now bringing up theimize the opportunity for this seed to thrive? he asks. yield floor, Kerran Clements, North American breed- Maryse ing, product development lead, canola for BayerTechnology Key for Future Crops Bourgault.CropScience Canada, says in the Nov. 24 episode ofTechnology has a huge roll to play in making crops Seed Speaks. So, in the good years, you can chasemore resilient to changing climates. Plant breeding those high yields, but in the bad years, they're nothas become more digitized with plant breeders now wrecks, you can still grow a really profitable crop. able to run stress tests on computers in some cases, For this to happen though, its not just about focus- Clements explains.ing on one trait in crops, a variety are needed. In canola,With the digitization of breeding, we can create a which Clements mainly works with, he says numerousdigital representation of the lines or hybrids based on traits such as pod shatter technology and multigenicphenotype, genotype and characterized traits. The disease packages, are all needed to help make theconcept or the philosophy around this digital twin is you oilseed more resilient.can create this digital twin of the physical plant, and you Making crops more resilient isnt just about can apply different environmental simulations ortraditional plant breeding. Maryse Bourgault, assistantoutcomes to see how the genetics will respond, heKerran Clements. professor and the Western Grains Research Foundationsays.chair in integrated agronomy in a joint appointmentBy being able to do this digitally, plant breeders are between the departments of plant and soil sciences atable to discover what crops are better suited to which the University of Saskatchewan, is a crop physiologistenvironments before they are even planted in the ground. by training. She says its important for plant breedersClements says this is used as a proof of concept, which is to understand some of the characteristics of crops theythen physically tested when the crops are planted, thus are working with. speeding up the plant breeding timeline.SWTrying to characterize the environment is really important because no two years are the same. So, we ON THE WEBmight be in a semi-arid environment. But the type ofWHERE stress that occurs in one year might be very differ-ent from a different year even at the same location,To watch the panel discussionBourgault explains. on climate change, go to Charlie Understanding the environment a plant is growing inwww.youtube.com/watch?v=gn-og8cR9yk. Campbell.also includes looking at long range climate plans. With extreme weather seeming to be more common now, 62/ SEEDWORLD.COMJANUARY 2022"