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plant physiology, and cropping system sciences to develop im- proved varieties of agronomic, turf, ... How do we best define complex, multilevel interac-.
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by Joseph G. Lauer, Caron Gala Bijl, Michael A. Grusak, P. Stephen Baenziger, Ken Boote, Sarah Lingle, Thomas Carter, Shawn Kaeppler, Roger Boerma, Georgia Eizenga, Paul Carter, Major Goodman, Emerson Nafziger, Kimberlee Kidwell, Rob Mitchell, Michael D. Edgerton, Ken Quesenberry, and Martha C. Willcox
Editor’s note: The following article was originally published in the May–June 2012 issue of Crop Science (52:1003–1010). Due to space constraints, the opening section and the Reference section are omitted here but can be viewed in the original article, which is available at www.crops.org/publications/cs/ tocs/52/3. In 2009, CSSA, ASA, and SSSA leaders met with Dr. Rajiv Shah, who, at the time, served as Under Secretary of Research, Education, and Eco- nomics and Chief Scientist at the USDA. During the meeting, Shah appealed to the Societies to identify transformative questions to guide science in solv- ing issues related to climate change, food security, bioenergy production, human health and nutrition, and ecosystem health. In response to this charge, the CSSA Grand Challenge Committee (CGCC) was formed to develop and communicate the challenges, which are outlined in this article.
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plant physiology, and cropping system sciences to develop im- proved varieties of agronomic, turf, and forage crops to produce feed, food, fuel, and fiber for our world’s growing population. During the last century, crop science has achieved feats that are now part of everyday life and taken for granted.
Despite these scientific achievements, the world today faces ever-growing challenges of widespread food insecurity and malnutrition, negative impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, and dependence on fossil fuel energy. Solutions to these challenges will be found, in part, through sustained, federal investment in crop science to address these challenges. CSSA or- ganized a committee to identify key grand challenges associated with crop science that, when addressed, will provide the tools, technologies, and solutions required to address these challenges.
Crop science is a highly integrative science
using the disciplines of conventional plant
breeding, transgenic crop improvement,
Grand Challenge: Resistance to
Biotic Stresses
Increase durability of resistance to biotic stresses that threaten food security in major crops
Background
Organisms that cause biotic stresses in crop plants are continually adjusting their pathogen- ic mechanisms to take advantage of the plant’s limited defenses. Unfortunately, with new intensive management practices being adopted and climate change altering environmental conditions, the rate of adjustment by some pathogens has accelerated. Furthermore, crop uniformity can increase genetic vulnerability to various pests. For example, U.S. soybean cultivars are almost uniformly susceptible to two relatively new U.S. biotic stresses: soybean aphid and soybean rust.
Contemporary best management practices that retain plant residues on the field result in increased soil organic matter, improved soil quality, and additional sequestered C; however, they also provide an environment where patho- gens can prosper and cause reduced yields. Examples include pathogens such as gray leaf spot of corn whose inoculum grows on previous crop residue. Carcinogenic af- latoxins are produced by fungi whose proliferation increas- es in stress environments of drought, high temperature, and/or high humidity. Therefore, there is a need for plant genomic tools that can identify novel resistance genes and assist in their rapid incorporation into improved cultivars.
Key Questions
Expected Outcomes
Grand Challenge: Management for Resource-Limited Systems Create novel crop varieties and management approaches designed for problem soils and low-input farming to increase economic prosperity for farmers and overcome world hunger
Background Agricultural productivity is limited in many areas by poor soil conditions and high fertilizer prices. However, soil tilth issues including high soil pH or toxic Al and salt levels are not easily remedied by conventional high-input approaches. As a result, new crop varieties and manage- ment practices are needed that reduce dependence on agricultural inputs and overcome common soil problems. Multidisciplinary research teams will be the key to success
Gray leaf spot of corn. Photo by the Department of Plant Pa- thology Archive, North Carolina State University, Bugwood.org.
because they have the expertise to improve N fixation in legume crops and improve nutrient uptake and use and can develop crop varieties that are tolerant of such soil limita- tions. Team research should focus on efficient and reliable methods to identify desirable crop germplasm that has the right genetic makeup to deliver these improvements. When coupled with technology transfer, these efforts will increase yields and quality of food crops and ameliorate food secu- rity and nutritional deficiencies at home and abroad.
Key Questions
Expected Outcomes
Grand Challenge: Crop Management Systems Create novel crop management systems that are resilient in the face of changes in climate and rural demographics
Background Agriculture is constantly adapting to change; consider the revolutions in agricul- ture due to irrigation, fertilizer, weed, insect, and disease control, and modern tillage sys- tems. We will need to make similar changes to our cropping systems as we face future changes in our climate and an increased need for using resources efficiently. Eighty to ninety percent of our food is produced on large-scale farms, usually operated by family entities. To ensure the greatest advances in productivity, environ- mental sustainability, and profitability, new crop management information and technol- ogy systems need to be adopted for farms of various scales. Such innovations should encourage integrated pest management and water and soil conservation in ways that are practical and conve- nient for large-scale farms. There are several tools that can make this possible, such as remote sensing and other off-site monitoring. The synergy between variety development and
Photo courtesy of Texas AgriLife Research.
Key Questions
soil C, minimize production inputs, and ultimately increase economic return for the grower?
Expected Outcomes
Grand Challenge: Bioresources Genotyping the major crop germplasm collections to facili- tate identification of gene treasures for breeding and genet- ics research and deployment of superior genes into adapted germplasm around the globe
Background Germplasm collections are a wonderful treasure trove of genetic diversity and the foundation for all crop improve- ment programs. A germplasm collection for a single crop species may contain more than 50,000 distinct genetic plant types, yet the genomic profiles are not readily available, limiting application of information contained in the col- lections. However, new inexpensive technologies offer a low-cost remedy for developing detailed genetic profiles to entire collections. As a result, new genomics information will enhance our ability to correlate a plant’s genotype with its agricultural performance for plant breeding purposes in a way never before possible. To translate the economically important diver- sity of germplasm collections into food and other agricultural products, it is critical that we inte- grate this new genomics information with a series of field-breeding positions specifically
A sample of the range of colors, shapes, sizes, and textures of cotton leaves, bolls, and seeds in the National Cotton Germplasm Collection. Photo by Peggy Greb (USDA-ARS).
targeted at “mining” germplasm collections. Field breeders will use hybridization and selection, informed by genomics, to produce novel, agronomically important genetic types that work effectively in agriculture. As a result, develop- ment of crops will be accelerated to avoid famines and market-place catastrophes resulting from fluctuations in rainfall, diseases, and pests, therefore enabling greater food security around the world.
Key Questions
profiles of individual entries within germplasm bank collections of major crops?
strategies, and genome-wide selection) to accelerate the time to field evaluation stage?
Expected Outcomes
Informing Science Policy with the CSSA Grand
Challenges Quickly after the release of its initial grand challenges booklet, CSSA submitted all six of the grand challenges to the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, in re- sponse to its request for information (RFI) on the “grand challenges for the 21st century.” In the resulting Strategy for American Innovation , released exactly one year after the RFI, there was little mention of specific disciplines. The document focused rather on the broader issues underly- ing science education and workforce development, global competition for the skilled labor force, and U.S. economic stimulation. The grand challenges document enabled CSSA to present a solid vision of the role of crop science in addressing the key societal challenge areas. The challenges have been used to communicate CSSA’s priorities to the USDA, U.S. De- partment of Energy, and the U.S. Agency for International Development as well as the National Science Foundation,
