b'Second, statisticians and field staff must model field experi- Xue agrees climate change is absolutely driving the need ment designs to have enough statistical power to detect thesefor better drought tolerance. In our environment here in the levels of difference. Multiple diverse field sites (generally 6-12),Southern Great Plains, development of drought tolerant vari-paired controls (nulls, wildtype, and positive checks), randomiza- eties has been a major research goal for decades, he says. tion and replication, common seed nursery sourcing, plot qualityTraditional breeding has made significant progress for improv-assessment, planting-harvest logistics, and weather hazards, areing drought tolerance but new genetic approaches will help to all important aspects of these designs. speed up breeding cycles.The study affirmed that single genes can indeed be foundMessina says selecting crosses for further testing in the field that when reintroduced as expression cassettes in transgeniccan be improved by employing artificial intelligence methods events, markedly improve maize crop yield performance in elitebased on the integration of quantitative genetics and biologic-germplasm in commercially relevant field environments. based models. This is an area that Corteva has pioneered in partnership with a number of public and private organizations, in The Changing Climate particular the University of Queensland.Developing better drought tolerance in all crops is becomingIn my opinion, Messina says, this is one of the most more essential as our planets climate continues to warm. advanced predictability technologies that will help us design Climate change may have been underway when CIMMYTcrops or help us predict more effectively the combinations of decided to improve maize for drought tolerance during therecombinance that will be best adapted to different types of 1970s, Dhliwayo says. However, droughts were not a newcrops which will help accelerate genetic gain. When we apply phenomenon then. Sub-Saharan Africa has a long history ofpredictive breeding for drought tolerance we can show that the droughts with known records going as far back as the 19thrate of genetic gain increases. century before conversations about global warming enteredAs we think about climate change, Messina adds, working mainstream society. with outside entities such as universities will help us be better at Dhliwayo says CIMMYT started improving maize for droughtwhat we do and implement circularity in agriculture. It is going to tolerance and nitrogen use efficiency after realizing the devastat- take public-private partnerships to deal with the daunting prob-ing effects drought and low nitrogen stress had on food security.lem we have in front of us. Farmers in developing countries depend on rainfall to growEditors Note: This piece has been condensed for print, but will maize with limited access to inputs. Unfortunately, the warm- appear in full online at seedworld.com.SWing climate is increasing the frequency and severity of droughts, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries.Is Your QualityLABQuantitative?Is Your Operation Really Data-Based?Every lot started with a count per pound for planning, was processed, and ended with a count per pound for packaging. But in a world of Precision Ag you can know so much more.Since you need count per pound data anyway, why wouldnt you get it from a vision system? .from a system that also gives you information on physical properties such as size, shape, colour.from a process that presents the sample settled to a uniform orientation on the imaging stage.from an image that makes comparisons from seed to seed and image to image truly meaningful. What can you Harvest from your data to improve your operation?We make data collection seamless. For more information or to schedule a demonstration, contact us at info@processvis.com PROCESS 804-514-9189281-276-3600 V I S I O N processvis.com satake-usa.comS E E D S O L U T I O N S60/ SEEDWORLD.COMSEPTEMBER 2021'