‘It takes a village to raise a child’ states the age-old saying, but now it will take a village to feed the child as well – if we’re smart.
“Agriculture’s critical challenges of providing food security and better nutrition in the face of climate change can only be met through global communities that share knowledge and outputs; looking inward will not lead to results,” said Ulrich Schurr, Director of the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences of the Forschungszentrum Jülich and Chair of the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN), speaking at the 4th International Plant Phenotyping Symposium in Mexico recently.
200 world-class scientists from over 20 countries gathered from 13 to 15 December 2016 to share knowledge and technology at the symposium, co-hosted by IPPN and the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT.
The symposium was attended by Dr Bettina Berger, Dr Trevor Garnett, Dr Xavier Sirault and Dr Jose Jimenez-Berni from the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF). Dr Sirault is also Co-Chair of the IPPN and Dr Jimenez-Berni gave a keynote lecture on field phenotyping techniques developed at the High Resolution Plant Phenomics Facility (HRPPC) node of the APPF and how they can be applied to screen for plant development including biomass and canopy architecture in the field.
The symposium focused on three themes:
- Advances in Plant Phenotyping Technologies to explore the frontiers of what can be sensed remotely and other technological breakthroughs.
- Phenotyping for Crop Improvement to consider the application of phenotyping technologies for crop improvement (breeding, crop husbandry, and estimating the productivity of agro-ecosystems).
- Adding Value to Phenotypic Data to review how phenomics and genomics can combine to improve crop simulation models and breeding methodologies (e.g., genomic selection).
Read the full article ‘Harnessing medical technology and global partnerships to drive gains in food crop productivity’ written by Mike Listman on CIMMYT’s website.
Read more excellent plant science articles by Mike Listman here.
(Main image: Dr Jose Jimenez-Berni (keynote speaker), Dr Xavier Sirault (Co-Chair IPPN), Dr Trevor Garnett and Dr Bettina Berger from the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility at the symposium)
