The lengthy highway to breeding a disease-resistant number of peanut started in an easy style for researcher Shona Wood.
“I literally get a peanut flower and I press it against another peanut flower,” the University of Southern Queensland PhD scholar says.
“I get the pollen from one and I put it on another one, it’s all traditional breeding methods.”
The subsequent step was to plant about 400 varieties that have been “essentially brother and sister” in Queensland’s Kingaroy area earlier than exposing them to web blotch illness.
“We crossed a resistant parent and a susceptible parent … all of the seed from that, we put into the field and then they essentially became their own varieties,” Ms Wood mentioned.
Net blotch is a fungal illness and if left uncontrolled could cause yield losses of as much as 50 per cent in peanut crops, inflicting tens of millions of {dollars} in damages.
Historically, spraying chemical compounds had been the principle approach to management illness, Ms Wood mentioned.
This methodology allows distinctions between resistant and prone strains.
A few the brand new vegetation have good illness resistance, and the subsequent step is to mix this with different qualities farmers like, similar to excessive yield.
The present vegetation even have potential to be immune to different issues foliage, similar to late leaf spot and rust.
“Growers want resistance for everything, so there ‘s a whole bunch of other diseases, including soil-borne disease, that need research,” Ms Wood mentioned.
“It’s just the tip of the iceberg, and they’re excited we’re moving in the right direction.”
It’s additionally necessary to reveal the vegetation to ailments over a number of years, accounting for various environmental results.
“It’s a long process,” Ms Wood mentioned.
With her PhD submitted, it is simply the beginning of the highway for her analysis.
“It sounds silly, but making sure that we look after our farmers and give them varieties that help them, but also produce enough food for the world.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
