Systems Approaches for Perennial Crops: Case Studies from Perennial Wheat in Australia and Perennial Rice in Asia

SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURAL & WINE SCIENCES
1. Systems Approaches for Perennial Crops:
Case Studies from Perennial Wheat in Australia
and Perennial Rice in Asia
Professor Len Wade, lwade@csu.edu.au, Graham Centre, Charles Sturt
University, Wagga Wagga NSW, Australia
Workshop on Perennial Crops in West African Cropping Systems, ICRISAT,
Bamako, Mali, 1-5 September 2015

2. Why do we need perennial grains ??
For systems benefits, for example:
• soil stability Vs soil erosion (uplands of Asia)
• water stability Vs dryland salinity (Australia)
• nutrient stability Vs soil degradation (Africa)
• diversified systems with livestock
• farmer livelihood, food security
Therefore, need systems approaches!

3. What is needed for successful perennials??
• Plants able to regrow after normal harvest
• Able to retain floret fertility and set grain
• Agronomic type, e.g. height, seed size, non-shattering
• Appropriate resistances, e.g. disease and drought
• System compatibility
What benefits could accrue??
• Diversified / flexible production systems
• Soil health
• Ecosystem services
• Biodiversity secured
• Farmer livelihood & Food security

4. But is that the perception ??
We can see the potential
benefits
• But what do others see??
• Many see problems
initially: too complex
• or threats to established
crops and systems,
• or failure to address world
priorities for food grain

5. In Developed Countries:
• Concern to protect established annual crops against:
• Resilient hard-to kill weeds with rhizomes,
• Green bridge for disease progression during the off season,
• Poor grain quality to contaminate grain marketing
What about the developing country??
• Crop Centres see a need to prioritise increase in yield
potential and closing the yield gap in high-yielding annual
crops, especially under irrigation.
• They discourage investment that would dilute yield gain,
despite expected system benefits, including grazing and
livestock on non-prime land.

6. What is at issue??
• Expected performance trade-off with perennials
• Plant must invest in perenniating structures at cost of grain yield Vs.
Opportunity to acquire extra resources.
• Published data are needed to quantify this concept
Re-growth tillers from
underground
The old stems

7. Is this all there is to it?? No
• The green revolution neglected those remote from
favourable ecosystems, and such input-dependent
solutions had many pest and ecological concerns.
• We need to make impact in all systems, including mixed
farming in diversified remote uplands.
What do we need to do to
change these perceptions??
We need to quantify what these materials can do:
• ground cover, regrowth, floret fertility, forage value,
• dry matter production, resource capture, soil health,
• grain yield, grain quality, disease resistance.
• Requires systems approaches
• We must publish the evidence

8. PERENNIAL WHEAT IN AUSTRALIA AS A CASE STUDY:
Wheat growing regions of Australia.
Wheat is grown in Mediterranean
climates of southern Australia and
subtropics in NE.
Wheat in the south, sorghum and
sugar in the north, extensive sheep
and cattle.
Invert Australia over West Africa,
and the climatic zones align:
wet tropics, desert, and
mediterranean zones.

9. What are the characteristics needed
for perennial wheat??
• Survive after grain harvest in early summer
• Maintain a deep root system able to continue
• Survive hot and dry conditions during late summer, survive freezing
temperatures (if in the temperate zone)
• Regrow in the autumn and initiate reproductive growth at the
appropriate time in the following spring
• Able to repeat the cycle several times.

10. How would perennial wheat fit into the current
wheat-based mixed farming system?
We used MIDAS (A Model of an Integrated Dryland Agricultural System) to
assess alternatives in wheat-based systems, including fodder and grazing by
sheep.
• As a grain crop alone, perennial wheat needed to yield 65% of annual wheat
(if they received equal grain price)
• As a dual purpose crop, perennial wheat only needed to yield 40% of annual
wheat with 800 kg/ha additional forage, which was extremely valuable because
of its timing. There was a big impact on carrying capacity, relief of pasture.
Bell et al., (2008) Agric. Systems

11. Field Evaluation in Row Nurseries
• A number of amphiploids showed
promise, even though they were not
developed from adapted Australian
germplasm.
• Some entries perenniated to allow
harvests over three years in the field.
• Much variability was evident, however,
showing promise for further
improvement.
• Desirable agronomic, disease
resistance and grain quality attributes
were present.
Hayes et al. 2012 Field Crops Research

12. Field Evaluation in Plots
147235a
Wheat/L.elongatum
Secale montanum
Family 10
Currently best available
germplasm survived up to 4
years in the field, and
contributed up to 40% of grain
yield, and cumulatively,
comparable dry matter to
Wedgetail, the annual wheat
control, in the first year.
The results established that
development of perennial
wheat for Australia should be
feasible.
Larkin et al 2014 Crop and Pasture Science

Drymatter(g/plant)
By the end of a two-year
growth cycle, selected
perennial wheats were
able to achieve up to 10-
fold greater below-ground
biomass than a resown
annual wheat.
This greater root DM
indicates potential for
enhanced water
extraction in subsequent
cycles.
There were also
indications of enhanced
dehydration tolerance and
survival.
Fig 1. Above-ground (shoots) and below-ground (roots) dry
matter (g/plant) of 1 annual wheat, 1 perennial wheatgrass
and 4 perennial wheat derivatives under well-watered
conditions over two years on 4 sampling occasions.
Larkin et al (2014) Crop and Pasture Science
13. DM Production & Partitioning in Soil Columns

14. Effect of Source or Sink Limitation on DM Partitioning14. Effect of Source or Sink Limitation on DM Partitioning
Drymatter(g)/
-50
0
50
100
150
Manipulation of treatments
Control
Source
Sink
Source+Sink
-50
0
50
100
150
CPI-148055
Drymatter(g)/plant
-50
0
50
100
150
Above ground
Below ground
-50
0
50
100
150
Manipulation of treatments
Control
Source
Sink
Source+Sink
-50
0
50
100
150
CPI-147235a
CPI-148055
Drymatter(g)/plant
Wedgetail
-50
0
50
100
150
Above ground
Below ground
-50
0
50
100
150
50
100
150
CPI-147235a
CPI-148055
 If the plant is limited by
assimilate supply (source) or
grain number (sink), where
does the assimilate go?
 With less assimilate, you get
a smaller plant.
 With fewer spikelets, more to
stem and especially roots, and
especially in the perennials.
 Results were variable, so
experiment is to be repeated.
Figure. 2. Above- and below-ground dry matter of one perennial
wheat derivative CPI-148235a and one perennial grass CPI-
148055 compared with annual wheat Wedgetail in soil columns,
under control, source limitation and sink limitation treatments.
Aktar et al (2015) 17th Australian Agronomy Conference, Hobart.
Drymatter(g)/plant
Control
Control
Control
Source
Source
Source
Sink
Sink
Sink

Site Wedgetail CPI-148235a CPI-148055 SE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wagga GxE 2014 13.9 13.6 11.0 0.5 **
Cowra GxE 2014 12.7 11.3 9.1 0.8 **
Cowra Mix 2014 11.3 11.8 9.9 1.3 *
Cowra Mix 2015 8.4 10.6 8.4 2.8 n.s.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mean 11.6 11.8 9.6 1.6 *
Table 1. Profile gravimetric soil water contents (%; 0-150 cm soil depth) for annual wheat
Wedgetail, perennial wheat CPI-148235a, and perennial grass CPI148055, at four sites in Wagga
and Cowra during March 2014 and March 2015. Standard error (SE) and level of statistical
significance (*P=0.05, **P=0.01, n.s. = not significant) are also shown.
• Perennial grass used more water from throughout the soil profile in 2014, which was drier.
Newell et al (2015) International Society of Root Research, Canberra.
15. Water Use at 4 Field Locations
Profile (0-150 com soil depth) Gravimetric Water Content

16. Regrowth Vs 2n Chromosome Count
in T. aestivum x Th. elongatum derivatives
147236a 2n=56
147544b 2n=56
147233a 2n=48
Evidence that a full set of
chromosomes from the
perennial parent is
required in the
amphiploid, in order for it
to survive, regrow and be
able to set seed in
subsequent cycles.
Hayes et al. (2012)
Field Crops Research
Larkin et al. (2014)
Crop & Pasture Science

17. Wheat-wheatgrass amphiploids
Disease resistances
• 50 Th.elongatum derivatives
• 36 very resistant to stripe and leaf rust
• 3 very resistant to all three rusts
• 38 Th.intermediumderivatives
• 26 very resistant to stripe and leaf rust
• 3 very resistant to all three rusts
• 12/19 very resistant to Wheat streak mosaic virus
• Some very resistant to BYDV and CYDV
Stem rust
Perennial grass donors are sources of
robust resistance to many diseases
This makes sense ecologically
Wheat streak mosaic virus
Barley yellow dwarf virus

18. One way forward
Wheat-elongatum breeding - an international effort
Diverse Th.elongatum (2n=14) accessions collected and shared
Cross to diverse 4x or 6x adapted and/or high-crossability wheats
Chromosome double F1 plants (colchicine)
Stabilise AABBEE and AABBDDEE primary amphiploids through selfing
Share primary amphiploids internationally
Intercross primary amphiploids to generate breeding populations of
secondary amphiploids
Rigorous selection
Share germplasm internationally for multi-environment assessments

19. lntercrossing wheat/Th.elongatum amphiploids (2n=56)
WSU CPI147242b F1 CIMMYT CA991
CS / Te //Madsen Goshawk / Te

20. Evaluation of F2 and F3 populations at CSU
Evaluation of F2 and
F3 populations has
commenced at CSU
to start the breeding
program, using the
approach set out
above, from Larkin et
al (2014) in Crop and
Pasture Science.

Perennial Rice PR23 from Professor Fengyi Hu at YAAS Kunming in China is
already under pre-release testing in Yunnan Province for release to farmers.
21. PERENNIAL RICE AS A CASE STUDY IN ASIA

22. Perennial Rice is already being grown commercially
under lowland paddy in Yunnan Province of China

23. Perennial rice is being evaluated in Lao PDR,
including under rainfed lowland and upland conditions

24. Next Steps and Future Challenges:
GxE analysis is in progress for perennial wheat and
perennial rice, to identify patterns of adaptation,
target environments, adapted genotypes, and useful
traits for each target.
Ecological targets should be recognised, which may
require different trait combinations for adaptation or
alternative products, e.g. grain, fodder, nutrition,
livelihood, soil health, environmental services, food
security.
Research is examining how perennial wheat may fit
the farming system, what traits are needed, and what
trade-offs may result. This is especially important if
the intent is to target less favourable rainfed lowland
and upland environments in mixed farming systems.
To secure sustainable funding, demand for perennial
crops from users is essential.

25. Key References:
Bell et al (2008) Agricultural Systems 96, 166-174.
Bell et al (2010) Crop & Pasture Sci. 61, 679-690.
Glover et al (2010) Science 328, 1638-1369.
Glover et al (2010) Science 330, 33-34.
Hayes et al (2012) Field Crops Res. 133, 68-89.
Batello et al (eds.) (2014) FAO, Rome, Italy, 390 p.
Larkin et al (2014) Crop & Pasture Sci. 65, 1147-1164.
Aktar et al (2015) 17th Aust Agronomy Conf, Hobart
Newell et al (2015) Intl Society Root Research, Canberra
Wade LJ (201_) In: FAO, Rome, Italy (in press).

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Systems Approaches for Perennial Crops: Case Studies from Perennial Wheat in Australia and Perennial Rice in Asia