PLANT BREEDERS MAY NEED TO THINK 
BIGGER THAN EVER BEFORE
PLANT BREEDERS ARE accustomed to thinking 
years ahead.
A new disease pressure. A changing climate. A trait that 
farmers may need long before they realize they need it.
But according to U.S. Department of Agriculture 
(USDA) Under Secretary for Research, Education and 
Economics Scott Hutchins, the next challenge may be even 
bigger.
Plant breeders may need to expand how they think 
about their role in agriculture itself.
Speaking to attendees at the National Association of 
Plant Breeders meeting at Texas A&M University, Hutchins 
connected some of USDA's biggest priorities — farmer 
profitability, human health, food security and national 
resilience — directly to the work happening inside modern 
breeding programs.
The message wasn't that breeders need to abandon 
traditional priorities like yield, agronomic performance and 
disease resistance. It was quite the opposite.
Hutchins suggested the industry is entering an era 
where plant breeding will increasingly influence challenges 
that stretch far beyond the lab and the field.
"We've been extremely efficient because of the innova­
tions, because of the continuous investment and success of 
plant breeding and other sciences," Hutchins says.
He pointed to a century of agricultural productivity 
gains as evidence that innovation has already transformed 
society in ways many people no longer recognize.
36  / SEEDWORLD.COM  SEPTEMBER 2026
USDA Under Secretary Scott 
Hutchins says the future of 
agriculture will depend on breeding 
innovations that extend beyond the 
farm gate  to consumers, human 
health and national resilience.
By Aimee Nielson, Seed World U.S. Editor

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