Project Grant 20246701342667

** AWARDS ISSUED PRIOR TO JANUARY 20, 2025, WERE FUNDED UNDER PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRIORITIES AND POLICIES OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.** INTERCROPPING IS THE PRACTICE OF GROWING TWO OR MORE SPECIES IN THE SAME PLACE AND/OR TIME. IN BEST-CASE SCENARIOS, INTERCROPS YIELD MORE PER ACRE THAN MONOCROPS, WITH FEWER INPUTS, AND OFFER LONG-TERM YIELD STABILITY. BREEDING FOR INTERCROPPING (B4I) IS AN UNDEREXPLOITED STRATEGY TO IMPROVE INTERCROPPING AND OUR PROPOSAL'S FOCUS. PURPOSE-BRED INTERCROP-ADAPTED CULTIVARS WOULD COMPLEMENT AGRONOMIC OPTIMIZATION AND HELP OVERCOME BARRIERS TO ADOPTION.BREEDING BETTER INTERCROPS MEANS TESTING LOTS OF DIVERSITY IN INTERCROPPING SITUATIONS. FOR BEST RESULTS, BREEDERS NEED TO DO THIS EARLY ON THE SELECTION PROCESS, WHEN 100'S TO 1000'S OF POTENTIAL VARIETIES NEED TO BE TESTED FOR EACH SPECIES. IN THIS SITUATION, IT ISN'T PRACTICAL TO TEST ALL COMBINATIONS OF BOTH CROPS. THIS LIMITS SELECTION FOR INTERCROP PERFORMANCE UNTIL THE END OF THE BREEDING PROCESS WHEN MOST CANDIDATES ARE ALREADY REMOVED.THE PURPOSE OF OUR COORDINATED INNOVATION NETWORK IS TO DEMONSTRATE SOLUTIONS TO THESE PROBLEMS, ADVANCING B4I BY EXAMPLE. WE FOCUS ON OAT-PEA (AVENA SATIVA, PISUM SATIVUM) AS A MODEL OF CEREAL-LEGUME GRAIN INTERCROPS.WE WILL DEMONSTRATE AN APPROACH WHEREIN ONLY A TRACTABLE SAMPLE OF OAT-PEA COMBINATIONS NEEDS TO BE GROWN IN THE FIELD, BUT ALL OATS AND ALL PEAS ARE OBSERVED WITH AT LEAST ONE PARTNER OF THE OTHER SPECIES. THOUGH WE LIMIT FIELD TESTING TO ONLY A SUBSET OF OAT-PEA COMBINATIONS, WE WILL OBTAIN DNA FINGERPRINTS ON ALL OATS AND ALL PEAS. OUR MULTI-YEAR, MULTI-LOCATION PILOT TRIAL WILL EVALUATE THOUSANDS OF INTERCROP PLOTS WHILE ONLY SPARSELY TESTING THE POSSIBLE OAT-PEA COMBINATIONS. BASED ON THE GENOMIC AND PLANT TRAIT DATA, WE WILL TRAIN A MACHINE LEARNING MODEL TO PREDICT WHICH PEAS, OATS, AND PEA-OAT COMBINATIONS YIELD BEST TOGETHER. IF SUCCESSFUL, OUR APPROACH WILL ENABLE SELECTION FOR INTERCROP-ABILITY TO HAPPEN EVEN IN THE EARLY STAGES OF BREEDING, WHEN MOST CANDIDATE VARIETIES HAVEN'T YET BEEN FIELD TESTED.OUR RESULTS WILL ENABLE THE DESIGN OF SELECTION STRATEGIES THAT WILL ACCELERATE THE IMPROVEMENT OF OAT-PEA AND OTHER INTERCROPPING SYSTEMS THROUGH BREEDING.WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE OUR NETWORK GROW INTO A B4I COMMUNITY, ADDRESSING MANY SPECIES AND INTERCROPS.