1. Patrick S. Schnable Department of Agronomy
How ISU’s Plant Science Institute is Addressing (some) Sustainability Challenges in Agriculture
Patrick S. Schnable
Department of Agronomy
Iowa State University
13 April 2017

2. Sustainability Challenges in Agriculture
$2B/yr
Increasing demands for food, feed, fiber and fuel; decreasing amount of arable land
Agricultural inputs: increasing costs (e.g., nitrogen), reduced availability (e.g., water), and undesirable ecological impacts
Achieving yield stability challenging due to climate change: droughts/floods, temperature extremes, and pests & diseases-weather variability 2

3. Phenotype (P) = Genotype (G) + Environment (E)* + GxE
One Approach
Use massive amounts of genotypic, phenotypic and environmental data in conjunction with the Big Data paradigm to develop predictive models.
*Includes crop management

4. Predictive Models Will:
Improve accuracy of selection in plant breeding programs, thereby increasing rate of genetic gain per year
Enhance our ability to efficiently breed crops to withstand the increased weather variability associated with global climate change
Improve our ability to provide farmers with evidence-based recommendations for the appropriate varieties to plant in a given field, under a particular management practice in a given year, leading to increased yields and enhanced yield stability
Enable daily national and global yield predictions, thereby facilitating early responses to food emergencies and avoiding market failures

5. “Invest in people not projects” HHMI Investigator and MPI Model
16 PSI Faculty Scholars selected from a diversity of disciplines (e.g., biologists, computational scientists, engineers, etc.) to build a “predictive plant phenomics” community
Provided PSI Scholars with stable, flexible multi-year funding beginning in 2015

6. Collaborations Among PSI Scholars

7. Predictive Phenomics-Related Metrics for 16 PSI Scholars (since program inception in 2015)
External Grants: $15.4M (N=71)
Publications: N=136*
Speaking Engagements: N=139

8. P3
Cross-training engineers, plant scientists and data scientists to address key agronomic challenges of the 21st Century 
$3.0M
Julie Dickerson, PI
Ted Heindel, co-PI
Carolyn Lawrence-Dill, co-PI
Pat Schnable, co-PI
NSF-Funded Ph.D. Traineeships at Iowa State University in Predictive Plant Phenomics