Designing new crops for the future
Worldwide evolutions of Agriculture (environmental and societal changes) raise issues on paradigm shift in plant breeding and plant protection. We propose students to imagine cultivated varieties for tomorrow, new plant protection strategies and their implementation within production chains.
Organisation:
* One item per week, including seminars, lectures and demonstations
* A four-weeks applied transversal project (for example : breeding transplanted sorghum in the extreme North of Cameroon: a participatory breeding program)
* Field visits
Item 1: Analyze and predict the effect of global changes on cropping systems (climatic changes, societal expectations, pests, food security, diversification of agricultural production)
Item 2: Define crop ideal-type adapted to environmental constraints and innovative cropping systems (ideotypes, biocontrol, resistance, tolerance, genotype/environment interaction)
Item 3: Methods to reach this ideal-type (genetic innovations, plant-pest-natural enemy interactions, link between genotype and phenotype, control of genetic recombination)
Item 4: Technical, societal and legislative challenges (perception towards innovation, public acceptability, mode of production, participatory selection, legal challenges)
Keywords: global changes, crops, ideotype, biological control, varietal innovation, breeding
At the end of this course, students should be able to propose and discuss, on a case study, a prospective initiative in plant production, plant breeding or crop protection, organised into differents items, going from the initial context and up to its implementation.
Cooperative learning
Demonstration
Seminar
Lecture
Problem solving
Simulation
Visit
*Written report (12 pages maximum)
*Oral presentation (15 mn)
*Assessment of individual participation
Start date: 24-01-2022
End date: 18-02-2022