Climate change is now already leading to periods with extreme drought or a lower availability of fresh water. This causes a (considerable) reduction in plant production. Scientists of Plant Research International are therefore looking for genes that are strengthening plant resilience to such climate changes.
In some regions of the world fresh water is now already scarce and this scarcity will only increase in the years ahead. Not only the amount of rain will decrease but the moment at which this rain is falling is also changing. Some regions, such as in Africa, require crops that can withstand periods of drought. In other regions, such as the Netherlands, water is often available but the use of water is increasingly restricted. This means that crops need to be cultivated that produce he same yield with less water.
Cowpea, a legume resembling the yardlong bean, is an important crop for poor populations in Africa. The crop is drought-tolerant but is also grown in the wet season. Climate change, however, makes the rainy season less predictable. The start of the wet season remained the same but this is nowadays immediately followed by a period of drought. And the wet season finishes earlier. This causes yield losses.
Drought-tolerant cultivars
Together with African scientists our scientists started research into the properties of cowpea to give the plant a better resistance to such a period of drought immediately after germination. They were also looking for properties to give cowpea a better resistance to drought as result of a shorter rainy season. They discovered fragments of DNA where the genes are located that are responsible for these properties. This enables breeders to breed better yielding crops under the new climatic conditions.
Our scientists are conducting similar research with potato. This crop produces more food per hectare than most other food crops. This makes it an important crop in world food supply because in the near future an increasing number of people need to be fed than is now already the case. Our scientists are trying to identify properties that are making the crop also suitable for cultivation in areas with periods of drought. They are also trying to find properties that determine the water use efficiency of potatoes. All this serves to find genes that enable breeders to breed potatoes producing the same yield with less water or a higher yield with the same amount of water.