1. Crop Science in Food Security
Brian Diers

2. Outline Role of Crop Science in food security
Crop Sciences Department research on increasing crop production
USAID soybean project in Africa

3. Global Crop Production
Needs to Double by 2050
Yield increases of 2.4% / year needed to meet demand without putting more land in production
Current
1.6%
1.0%
0.9% 1.3%
Ray DK, Mueller ND, West PC, Foley JA (2013) Yield Trends Are Insufficient to Double Global Crop Production by PLoS ONE 8(6): e doi: /journal.pone

4. Ray DK, Mueller ND, West PC, Foley JA (2013) Yield Trends Are Insufficient to Double Global Crop Production by PLoS ONE 8(6): e doi: /journal.pone

5. US yield increases are approximately 1% / Year

6. Crop Sciences Department is Focused on the Crop Production Challenge
Diverse portfolio of research
Breeding/genetics
Molecular biology/genomics
Agronomy
Plant protection

7. Crop Sciences Department Soybean Breeding and Genetics Research
Improving soybean with a focus on yield and disease resistance.
Releasing nonGMO varieties.
Identifying useful diversity in USDA soybean germplasm collection (Randall Nelson, curator).

8. Soybean Innovation Lab Breeding Research in Africa

9. Why Soybean in Africa?
There is a protein deficiency in Africa and soybean produces more protein / area of farmland compared to any crop or livestock system.
Soybean is a relatively low input crop and doesn’t require nitrogen fertilizer.
Better varieties and production practices needed to improve yield and make the crop profitable for growers.

10. Soybean Yields are Low in Africa
African soybean yields are similar to the USA in the 1930s.
Yield kg/ha
Year

11. Participants in Breeding Effort
USA (60+ years of soybean breeding experience)
Randy Nelson – USDA-ARS and University of Illinois
Brian Diers – University of Illinois
Africa (little experience in breeding soybean)
Hesham Agrama – IITA breeder Malawi and Zambia
Nicholas Denwar – SARI breeder, Ghana
Abush Tesfaye – Jimma Agricultural Research Center

12. Soybean Breeding Programs
SIL providing:
Basic equipment for breeding
Threshers, planters, vehicles, crossing forceps, scales
Germplasm
Technical expertise

13. Conclusions Crop Science has a critical role in food security
Crop yields are increasing, but not fast enough to meet growing demands
Crop Sciences Department research portfolio is focused on improving sustainable crop production
The Soybean Innovation Lab is working in increase soybean production in Africa

14. Need for Food Production Increase
Maize (corn), rice, wheat, and soybean produce nearly 2/3 of global agricultural calories.
We need increase of 2.4% per year (non-compounding) for these crops globally.
Current global rates are 1.6% (maize), 1.0% (rice), 0.9% (wheat) and 1.3% (soybean).
Ray DK, Mueller ND, West PC, Foley JA (2013) Yield Trends Are Insufficient to Double Global Crop Production by PLoS ONE 8(6): e doi: /journal.pone

15. Need for Crop Production Increase
Crop production is needs to double by 2050 be meet growing demands
How to meet the demand?
Increase area under production
Increase output of land in production

16. Challenges Breeding programs are small
Breeders have staff lack experience with the crop
Limited by the number of plots that can be planted and threshed by hand threshed
Limited by what is viewed as possible