Corn breeder Zachary Jones explains why communication, confidence and a commitment to rural communities still matter in the age of AI.
Artificial intelligence dominated the official agenda when plant breeders gathered at Texas A&M University in June for the annual meeting of the National Association for Plant Breeding.
But beneath the conversations about genomics, phenomics and machine learning was a more human question: What kind of people will be needed to turn those technologies into better products for farmers?
In a special Texas-themed edition of the Seed World Podcast, Corteva Agriscience corn breeder Zachary Jones offers an answer rooted in teamwork, communication and a clear sense of purpose.
Jones, who received the NAPB Early Career Scientist Award in 2025, works with genomic prediction and other tools designed to improve breeding efficiency and accelerate product development. He has already experienced one of the defining moments in a breeder’s career: seeing products he helped develop reach the commercial market.
“You get this really cool opportunity to see all the hard work that you put in across years actually deliver for the customer,” he says.
For Jones, that work is deeply connected to his upbringing on approximately 50 acres of red soil in Spring Garden, Alabama. Plant breeding gave him a way to use science in service of rural places like the one that raised him.
“When I think about my passion for this industry, it’s a way to use science to help people in rural communities,” he says.
One of the most influential moments in his career happened long before he encountered genomic prediction. In seventh grade, agricultural science teacher Dennis Tierce asked Jones and his classmates to stand and recite part of the FFA Creed. Tierce’s encouragement helped Jones develop the confidence to speak publicly—a skill that now allows him to explain complex science to growers, policymakers and the public.
“The science, honestly, is table stakes,” Jones says. “The thing that really makes a difference in modern plant breeding is being able not only to understand the science, but to communicate it.”
In the podcast episode, Jones discusses the mentor who changed his trajectory, the feeling of seeing his first commercial hybrid in farmers’ fields and why the graduate students he met at NAPB give him confidence in the profession’s future.
The technologies transforming plant breeding may be new. The qualities needed to use them well remain distinctly human.
Listen to the Seed World Podcast for the full conversation with Zachary Jones.
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