Science against climate change: Unlocking “wild genes” in wheat and autonomous solar-powered farm robots

05 Dec 2022 --- A newly bred “black-spiked” wheat with a hardiness likened to the strength of mountains is among new developments in agri-food science, which are humanity’s strong arm to offset the noticeably degrading effects of climate change that are crippling essential global food networks.

In other highlights, researchers in the Israeli desert have deployed solar powered autonomous robots for harvesting solar power and tending to crops. Meanwhile, Dutch scientists are piloting a new system for evaluating soil health.

Wheat as strong as mountains
A new drought-tolerant variety of durum wheat developed by plant breeders and gene bank staff at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) working in close collaboration with local farmers, with support from the Crop Trust, has been officially released for cultivation in Morocco.

Named Jabal, which means “mountain” in Arabic, this climate change-resilient variety got its name from one of the farmers taking part in the evaluation program during its development, who said that its distinctive black spikes were like the Atlas Mountains, “strong and proud.”

“The name Jabal, really helps tell this seed’s story. Indeed, its wild parent reached us by crossing a mountain marking the border between Syria and Lebanon during the worst part of the civil war in 2013,” comments Filippo Bassi, senior scientist – Durum Wheat Breeding Program at ICARDA.

Unlike other durum wheat varieties grown in the region, Jabal’s wild genes enabled it to thrive despite some of the worst droughts farmers had seen in decades.

When plant breeders and farmers tested new durum wheat varieties between 2017 and 2021, the resilience of Jabal was immediately highlighted as a series of intense droughts across multiple sites saw it flourish and continue to produce grains, while all commercial varieties of durum failed.

Farmers quickly began singling out Jabal, not merely for its ability to adapt to drought conditions, but also for its distinctive black spike, its high yields and the tastiness of the bread made from it.

The secret to this hardy wheat is in its family tree. Jabal was developed by crossing durum wheat varieties with Aegilops speltoides, sometimes known as goatgrass, a wild relative of wheat collected by scientists on the harsh dry plateaus of Syria.The black spike of Jabal (Credit: Crop Trust).

Commercial pathway being cultivated
Jabal, first evaluated under the Crop Trust’s Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) Project, has now been officially registered for cultivation by the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, following a two-year testing program across many Moroccan locations. Its commercial path has now started, with commercial seeds due to reach farmers’ hands in the next three years.

This progress holds particular significance to Moroccan farmers, who have faced severe economic and food insecurity as Morocco’s historical vulnerability to climate has increased in the past decade. Indeed, Morocco suffered the worst drought in 30 years in 2022, according to the latest figures from the Moroccan Ministry of Water and Logistics.

“Jabal is one of those crop varieties that attracts you immediately, with its tall stance, intense black spikes and plump fat grains. Many farmers said it was love at first sight when they saw it standing strong when all other varieties were being destroyed by drought.

“Many Moroccan farmers will benefit from this new drought-tolerant variety once it is made commercially available.”

The development of Jabal is just one example of researchers using the wild cousins of domesticated crops, exploring their potential and crossing them with cultivated plants until the crop contains the desired traits of the wild relative, such as drought or pest resistance. 

In the last five years, durum wheat has been the tenth most commonly cultivated cereal worldwide, with a yearly production average of 40 million metric tons (MT) from an estimated 16 million hectares, to make pasta, couscous and bulgur, which are all popular in North Africa and the Middle East.

Developing more climate-resilient durum wheat varieties like Jabal will continue to be supported by the Crop Trust through its Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD) Project, which is funded by the Government of Norway.

Durum wheat is just one of seven key crops whose genetic base the Crop Trust’s partners are continuing to broaden as part of the BOLD Project.

After successful efforts supported by the Crop Trust to use crop wild relatives under its Crop Wild Relatives Project, which was also supported by Norway, BOLD will work on seven crops, involving 45 partner organizations in 20 countries around the world.

BOLD’s aim is to lay the foundations for new climate-ready varieties of rice in Vietnam, alfalfa in Kazakhstan and Pakistan, potato in Kenya, Ecuador and Peru, finger millet in Uganda and Tanzania, durum wheat in Morocco and Sudan, barley in Ethiopia and Tunisia and grasspea in Bangladesh and Nepal.The development of Jabal is just one example of researchers using the wild cousins of domesticated crops (Credit: Crop Trust).

Harvesting the sun in Israel
Solar powered hardware is being deployed in Israel, under the moniker “Agrovoltaics” – a combination of the words agriculture and photovoltaic, which refers to solar panels.

The system is a sustainable self-sufficient toolbox that can be used on farms anywhere in the world. It assists with crop cultivation by generating its own electricity through its solar panel. That electricity is used for irrigation of the crops and even holds the potential to power a house.

The project – led by the US-based Jewish National Fund in cooperation with the University of Arizona and the Kasser Joint Institute – is now being trialed at remote global locations, offering aid to the dangers of drought and extreme heat.

The project has been evolving and expanding for some years now and is gearing up to be taken from the desert in Israel to international commercialization.

Dr. Tali Zohar, lead researcher on the project, explains that the program has grown everything from tomatoes and lettuce to spinach and kale through this new autonomous system. But it has taken time and patience to develop the experiments and turn them into reality, she explains.

“There is aerovoltaic in other places. There are water desalinations and solar panels. But there is no other place in the world where you have all of it together in one holistic approach that you can copy-paste and put somewhere else. That’s the importance of the project.” 

Tracking the maturation of soil
Dutch data collection specialist Eurofins Agro Testing has introduced the Soil Carbon Check, a new system that provides customers with information on how much carbon is sequestered in their soil, how stable their soil carbon is and how it can be improved.

The new farm screening platform also tracks how the carbon content of soil changes over time.

The Soil Carbon Check test will provide insights into the levels of carbon storage in fields, which supports the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere. Through this targeted soil management, farmers and growers can sequester increased levels of carbon and contribute to climate protection.

Data garnered through the Soil Carbon Check test reports can be used to support sustainability claims and carbon credits, as proof of sustainable farming and as credentials for other partners in the agri-food chain.

The “4 per 1,000” initiative launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015 (COP21) aims to boost carbon storage in agricultural soils by 0.4% each year to help mitigate climate change and increase food security.

The amount of carbon that is stored in soil is as much as three times the amount of carbon sequestered by above-ground biomass (trees or other plants and crops). Increasing the amount of carbon stored in soil will contribute to the reduction of global warming; the more CO2 stored in soil as organic carbon, the less CO2 that is released into the atmosphere.

In addition to Soil Carbon Check, the suite of tests offered by Soil Health Solutions provide insights into physical soil health – which supports the efficient use of water – while identifying potential contaminants in soil.

The tests also examine overall biological soil health to determine the biodiversity status of soil and effective actions to regenerate it, as well as chemical soil health, to prevent yield gaps and improve food quality.

By Benjamin Ferrer