While there is undeniable benefit in creating diversity through breeding, the UK landscape once held thousands of different wheat varieties, each suited to the soil and climate of the local area. The result of his experiments, known as the Oak Farm Population, is made up of 14 different crosses and some of the landrace parents “The overall aim would be to produce something that tastes very good and that can be grown with less inputs than modern wheats.” Return to heritage “Can we get the flavour and resilience of the landraces with the stronger straw and better yield, and stronger gluten of the modern wheats?” he asks. He went back to the genebanks to cross traditional landrace varieties with modern wheats, aiming to capture the yield and short stature characteristics of the modern varieties with the flavour and low input requirements of the landraces. He fought hard for a dispensation to this regulation, and in 2017, was granted the right to sell this seed, ensuring the legacy of his work, which is now being grown by farmers across the country.Ī different approach to breeding in diversity, is that taken by plant breeder Ed Dickin. One of the major challenges Wolfe faced was a legal one the genetic diversity at the heart of YQ contravenes EU legislation around seed conformity that requires the seeds that are sold to be both distinct and uniform. He took 20 varieties of modern wheat, selected either for yield or quality – hence the name YQ – cross-bred them and created a population from the resulting seeds. The most well-known of these is the ORC Wakelyns Population (known as YQ), the brainchild of the late Martin Wolfe, a pioneer in agroforesty and low impact cereal growing. One approach is to reintroduce diversity back into our fields by creating what is known as a ‘population wheat’, a genetically diverse crop produced by breeding a number of different varieties of wheat together. So how do we move away from these wheats towards varieties that work better in sustainable farming? And what changes need to happen at a systems level to support the market for these grains? Breeding in diversity Robots such as ‘Tom’ can help – but as a profession we need to do much more, to regenerate soils to ensure sustainable production going forward.As we explored in The History of Wheat, most of the milling wheat widely grown in this country has been bred for a specific farming system and market genetically homogeneous varieties produce high yields of grains that can be roller-milled and used to make industrialised bread, but are reliant on herbicides, fungicides and fertiliser in their production.īut these varieties don’t perform well in organic or low-input systems, and the wheat is ill-suited to stoneground flour and sourdough bread. Rob Macklin, the National Trust’s head of farming and soils, said: “It is much quoted that unsustainable agriculture could result in only 60 harvests left largely due to soil degradation, erosion, loss of organic matter and biological health. With weather becoming more extreme and unpredictable, it’s harder to know what will grow well, so having more than one crop improves farms’ resilience.’ 'The pea flowers attract bees, increasing biodiversity. 'Take peas and wheat for example – if you can grow both in one field, the peas fix nitrogen into the soil, which helps the wheat grow,' explains Callum.
Moving away from pure monoculture – just one variety of crop in a field – has many benefits. And in the future robots might be able to plant different seeds in the same field, attracting bees and increasing biodiversity.
Robots could also help farms save money as they can be used in place of heavy duty farming equipment, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and soil erosion caused by tractors.
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