How does a plant respond when it is exposed to multiple stresses at the same time such as drought, heat, flooding, salinisation, soil degradation, insects (pests), and diseases?
The Research Program entails research on plant resilience to develop a ‘smart data breeding methodology’ and research on the societal impact of this innovation. The program comprises nine Work Packages. Their teams unite academics affiliated to scientific organisations and experts connected to industrial partners or other organisations.
The science teams collect large volumes of data and combine data sets to develop models on plant resilience. The plant Arabidopsis (thale cress) is used for many of these studies.
This so-called ‘model plant’ allows the teams to easily exchange information and translate the knowledge gained to other plants. Constructing the first models is an iterative process that will take time. The models on Arabidopsis will be realised in the next couple of years. These models will be honed to perfection. This should lead to more refined models after approximately five years.
Subsequently, these so-called primary models will be translated to specific crops by the Translator work package. When this phase arrives, less crop-specific data is needed. This will enable the creation of ‘spin-off’ models for other crops. CropXR will first deploy the knowledge accumulated to six crops that have been selected. Subsequently, breeders can translate this knowledge to many other crops. This will enable them to step up their game and bring more resilient crops to the market.
What do these innovations mean for society? CropXR aims to include societal values and needs at an early stage. One of the work packages, therefore, studies the societal impact of the research and outcomes of CropXR.
For this, it deploys social sciences and humanities methodologies.
Which crops can enhance each other’s natural defense systems when they are exposed to, for instance, insects or drought? Resilient cropping systems try to use such natural agroecological processes of plants to reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers. The Agro work package aims to align the resilient breeding methodologies CropXR develops with resilient cropping systems.