M. Petitti1,2, R. Bocci2, B. Bussi2, S. Ceccarelli2*, C. Spillane1, P.
McKeown1
1 MScCCAFS Program, Plant and AgriBiosciences Research Centre (PABC), Ryan Institute for Sustainable Development, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland 2 Rete Semi Rurali, Scandicci (FI), Italy
Introduction
Evolutionary Populations (EP) of crops can adapt to climate change and different agro-ecological environments, increasing farmers’ resilience and enhancing on- farm biodiversity. The extent of initial genetic diversity, selection intensity, and population size, determine the adaptation rate. However, the suitability of crop EPs, and their acceptance by farmers in developed-world countries such as in Western Europe, remains unclear. To investigate the possibility of using EPs as a tool for climate-adapted varieties of Triticum aestivum L. (bread wheat), we developed populations in farmers’ fields in different regions of Italy, and tested their performance under organic growth conditions.
Material and Methods
The same bread wheat EP (Ceccarelli et al. 2010) evolved for five growing seasons at sites in Tuscany (To) and Sicily (Si), resulting in two EPs, SOL_FL and SOL_LR respectively. A farmer’s phenotypic selection within SOL_FL resulted in a third EP named SOL_FLS. The EP evolving in Sicily was moved to Abruzzo after three years, where it was called SOL_RO.
We conducted comparative trials for three years in each of the two regions of adaptation, and at two further locations in Molise (Mo) and Piedmont (Pi). In addition to the four EPs, the trials included three other EPs obtained in the UK, three variety mixtures, three local varieties and one control, a modern variety recommended for use under organic growth conditions. Field trials followed a row-column design in two replications with optimised randomisation (Cullis et al. 2006). A spatial analysis, adapted from Singh et al. (2003), was run to generate Best Linear Unbiased Estimates (BLUEs). Genotype × Environment and Genotype × Trait Interactions were then derived using GGEbiplot in statistical software
Results and Discussion
All three of the SOLIBAM EPs were found to be specifically adapted to the regions in which each had been cultivated: this was evidenced by a high level of performance stability in the environment in which each population evolved and by higher instability across environments. During the three years of the experiment, more than 350 farmers and visitors evaluated the germplasm being tested. The preference was often for some of the highest yielding EPs and varieties, such as SOL_FLS, SOL_FL and Maiorca respectively, although some low yielding mixtures, such as the mixture of old varieties, were also favoured, possibly because they were very tall.
There is a clear relationship between dietary diversity and health (Dwivedi et al. 2017). Dietary diversity in turn depends on cultivated biodiversity, which is also essential to improving resilience in scenarios where biotic and abiotic stresses may increase due to climate change.
Figure P8.1:The three SOLIBAM EPs generated by years of natural selection (SOL_FL, SOL_LR, SOL_RO) were specifically adapted to the regions where they evolved. As expected, this was accompanied, by a high level of stability in the environment in which each population evolved, and by a high instability across environments. SOL_RO was poorly adapted to all tested environments, having evolved in a different region from those where trials were carried out.
The EU COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION (2014/150/EU), provides for certain derogations for the marketing of populations of wheat, barley, oats and maize, and hence establishes a legal framework for marketing of SOL_LR and SOL_FL through decentralised seed systems. There is preliminary evidence that the use of adapted bread wheat EPs results in improved culinary and baking properties. Our results suggest that EPs could provide organic farmers with a low-cost technology to derive stable-yielding populations thus confirming the work of Raggi et al. (2017). Where there is a lack of crop breeding programs specifically addressing the needs of organic agriculture, EPs have the potential to provide populations specifically adapted to both the physical and agronomic conditions of organic farmers.
References
Ceccarelli, S., Grando, S., Maatougui, M., Michael, M., Slash, M., Haghparast, R., Rahmanian, M., Taheri, A., Al-Yassin, A., Benbelkacem, A., Labdi, M., Mimoun, H., & Nachit, M. (2010). Plant breeding and climate changes. The Journal of Agricultural Science,148(6), 627–637. doi:10.1017/S0021859610000651. (Cit. on p. 39)
Cullis, B. R., Smith, A. B., & Coombes, N. E. (2006). On the design of early generation variety trials with correlated data. Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Envi- ronmental Statistics,11(4), 381–393. doi:10.1198/108571106X154443. (Cit. on p. 39)
Dwivedi, S. L., Lammert van Bueren, E. T., Ceccarelli, S., Grando, S., Upadhyaya, H. D., & Ortiz, R. (2017). Diversifying food systems in the pursuit of sustainable food production and healthy diets. Trends in plant science, 22(10), 842–856. doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2017.06.011. (Cit. on p. 40)
Raggi, L., Ciancaleoni, S., Torricelli, R., Terzi, V., Ceccarelli, S., & Negri, V. (2017). Evolutionary breeding for sustainable agriculture: Selection and multi-environment evaluation of barley populations and lines. Field Crops Research, 204, 76–88. doi:10.1016/j.fcr.2017.01.011. (Cit. on p. 41)
Singh, M., Malhotra, R. S., Ceccarelli, S., Sarker, A., Grando, S., & Erskine, W. (2003). Spatial variability models to improve dryland field trials.Experimental Agriculture,