Pullman, Washington
August 12, 2008
Stephen Jones, a
Washington State University
wheat breeder, will partner in a multi-nation, $9-million grant
from the European Commission Research Directorate-General on a
research project designed to improve the production efficiency
of food, feed and biofuel crops.
"If we put 100 pounds of nitrogen on wheat, we are lucky if 50
pounds ends up in the grain," Jones said.
He believes that a five- to 10-percent improvement in production
efficiency of wheat is feasible. "We know there is variation for
these traits already," he said. "It takes finding that variation
and capturing that variation in our improved varieties."
Jones said the grant was written from an environmental and
economic perspective. In Europe, which has significant rainfall,
runoff and leaching of nutrients and farm chemicals into surface
and groundwater are a concern.
"It is so dry here," he said, "even if our nitrogen isn't used
by a crop at least some of it will get used eventually."
The chief incentive for improvement of production efficiency
here is economic. "Over the past few years, the price of
anhydrous ammonia has skyrocketed."
Jones will to test for variation in nitrogen uptake in different
types and varieties of wheat grown in organic and conventional
farming systems.
"Reducing off-farm inputs is just as important to organic
growers as conventional growers," Jones said. "If they don't
have a lot of animals, it is expensive for organic growers to
get enough fertilizer without trucking in manure or compost.
Their transportation costs are prohibitive."
Part of the funding Jones will receive will support an exchange
of graduate students. Students from Europe will spend up to a
year in Jones' program and his own doctoral students will spend
time on a university farm in Scotland.
The other participants in the project work at universities and
private companies in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands,
Denmark, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland, and China.
Jones is the only U.S. participant. The principal investigator
is at the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom. |
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