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Intermediate wheatgrass as a dual use crop for grain and grazing
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The Global Inventory Project is an ambitious, large-scale, global collaboration between The Land Institute, the Missouri Botanical Garden (one of the world’s largest research botanical gardens), and Saint Louis University.
The Global Inventory Project seeks to identify wild perennial species that are strong candidates to breed as perennial crops in a variety of climates. The project brings together scientists working to develop perennial grain, legume, and oilseed crops at The Land Institute with the growing resources accumulated by the botanical garden, museum, and plant genetics communities.
The long-term goal of this project is to advance sustainable agriculture and ecosystem security through the incorporation of perennial grain species into large-scale contemporary agriculture.
Because perennial grains are not well-represented in modern crop domestication projects, breeding programs targeting wild, previously undomesticated species offer one major pathway to the development of new perennial crops.
Identifying new perennial plants to domesticate and broadening the diversity of available perennial grains for modern agriculture requires a thorough process of candidate species identification and long-term planning and experimentation.
Generate a global checklist of perennial, herbaceous, or shrubby grain (Poaceae), legume (Fabaceae), and oilseed (Asteraceae) plants with potential for domestication and pre-breeding.
Identify a “short-list” of candidate species for pre-breeding and domestication based on the careful evaluation of traits related to crop yield and quality, plant function and performance in different environments, ease of domestication, known prior food use or toxicity issues, and access, among other considerations.
Build a collection of seeds of short-listed species for use in pre-breeding programs housed at The Land Institute.
Plan and initiate long-term experiment(s) designed to develop and test theory addressing evolutionary processes in perennial taxa.