40  / SEEDWORLD.COM  OCTOBER 2026
smaller crops. The organizations with the 
most data may be positioned to benefit 
first, while advances that allow models to 
work with smaller datasets could deter­
mine how broadly AI spreads through the 
breeding community.
Zamft says public research infrastruc­
ture remains essential to agricultural 
innovation. Seed companies have built 
substantial research capabilities, but 
academic and public-sector research still 
feeds discoveries into commercial breed­
ing programs. As AI increases the value 
of large datasets, he expects pressure to 
grow for new approaches to sharing data.
Why AI May Push Breeders to Share 
More Data
For Zamft, collecting data at scale is a 
prerequisite for the kind of modeling AI 
enables.
“Heritable Agriculture has developed 
our model through using public data, 
running our own trials and working with 
partners,” he says, “But I've long been an 
advocate of rip-the-bandage-off all-out 
data collection efforts, which would prob­
ably best come in the form of a public-
private partnership.”
Heritable Agriculture is currently 
engaged in such a partnership with fund­
ing from The Gates Foundation. Its sci­
entists are collaborating with researchers 
around the world to generate multi-omic 
datasets from drought and well-watered 
field trials of tropical maize at sites in Sub-
Saharan Africa.
Heritable Agriculture then uses its AI 
to mine the dataset for genes associated 
with drought resistance. The company 
also feeds those results into its models 
to create digital twins of crops and run 
digital trials. At the same time, the raw 
data and selected genes will be globally 
accessible to breeders.
The effort illustrates a larger tension 
surrounding AI in crop breeding. Better 
models can expand what breeders are 
able to predict, select and test, but the 
technology still depends on the informa­
tion available to it. As AI moves further 
into breeding programs, the ability to col­
lect, organize and share useful data may 
become as important as the algorithms 
themselves. SW
It’s reasonable to anticipate that 
the greatest gains in breeding 
will continue to be through small 
improvements that together add 
up to significant impacts.
— Jacob Washburn
Mariano Alvarez examines 
a crop in the field, where 
real-world observations 
and breeding data help 
inform the models behind 
Avalo’s AI platform. 
PHOTO: AVALO

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