Prioritize perennial grain development for sustainable food production and environmental benefits
Lee DeHaan, Lead Scientist for the Kernza Domestication Program at The Land Institute, and three other Lead Scientists at the organization collaborated with 28 global research partners working with perennial…
Sustained productivity and agronomic potential of perennial rice
New research reports that a new high-yielding, long-lived perennial rice with significant environmental, economic, and social sustainability impacts is now being grown in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa. Abstract…
The next era of crop domestication starts now
This collaborative paper, which includes research from The Land Institute’s Ecosphere Studies and Perennial Oilseeds Programs, highlights the need to apply tools and technologies toward domestication efforts that equally consider…
An investigation of grain characteristics, dough quality and baking performance of perennial wheats from contrasting parentage
Researchers in New South Wales, Australia examined the functionality of perennial wheat in its physical and chemical composition, milling yield, and baking quality in comparison to annual, conventional bread wheat…
Perennial intermediate wheatgrass accumulates more soil organic carbon than winter wheat – a model assessment
Perennial plants are known to add more biomass to soils when compared to annual plants, as evidenced by the rate of carbon accumulation in grassland ecosystems, but less research has…
Towards a practical theory for commercializing novel continuous living cover crops: a conceptual review through the lens of Kernza perennial grain, 2019–2022
Staff at The Land Institute, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, and the University of Minnesota discuss what is required to build developmental frameworks for novel continuous living cover (CLC) crops and…
Photosynthetic capacity, canopy size and rooting depth mediate response to heat and water stress of annual and perennial grain crops
Climate-resilient crops are becoming increasingly desired as global climate patterns continue to shift. This paper looks at the ability of perennial grains to adapt to warmer and drier growing conditions…
Soil total carbon and nitrogen under long-term perennial bioenergy crops receiving various nitrogen fertilization rates
A long-term study conducted in the northern Great Plains region of the US indicates that perennial crops such as intermediate wheatgrass (Kernza) may sequester greater amounts of soil carbon and…
David Pimentel consistently promoted perennial grains as the future of agriculture
Authors Tim Crews and Sienna Polk pay homage to influential entomologist and Cornell University professor David Pimentel, who was widely known for his numerous studies on the energetics of traditional…
Domestication effects on nitrogen allocation, internal recycling, and nitrogen use efficiency in the new perennial crop Silphium integrifolium (Asteraceae)
Abstract Improvements in seed yield during domestication and breeding are frequently achieved moving plants from the conservative syndrome of the plant economic spectrum towards the more acquisitive side, changing how…
Toward plant breeding for multicrop systems
Program leads from the Legume and Crop Stewardship Programs at The Land Institute released a paper detailing the ability of diverse cropping systems to address critical environmental issues connected to modern…
A social perennial vision for the North American Great Plains rooted in the resilience of a natural system-inspired agriculture
In the 2022 book Creating Resilient Landscapes in an Era of Climate Change, a shift to natural systems agriculture, which is modeled by indigenous agricultural practices and the diverse, perennial mixtures found in prairie ecosystems,…