b'PLANT BREEDING & GENETICS 2022Know Your CustomerHIS LIST OF accomplishments is extensive, with 103 pub-lications in refereed journals and 69 soybean varieties, and Success willincluding OAC Kent, which won the Seed of the Year Award in 2008.Istvan Rajcan is a giant among soybean breeders, to Follow: say the least. Its why the professor of soybean genet-ics and breeding in the Department of Plant Agriculture HOW ISTVANat the University of Guelph is the recipient of the Plant Breeding and Genetics Award for 2022.Sponsored by Seeds Canada and Germination, the RAJCAN BUILT Aaward is presented annually to a public or private sector researcher who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of Canadian plant agriculture through PERSONAL BRAND research in plant breeding and genetics.Rajcan joined the faculty at the University of Guelph in 1998. His germplasm is now present in a large percent-age of commercially successful soybean varieties grown This years Plant Breeding and Genetics in Eastern Canada. His products have also been grown beyond Ontario in Quebec, Award winner knows how to give the seedManitoba and Eastern Europe. industry what it wants. Theyve also gained major recognition with soybean end users throughout Europe and Asia.For our video interview with Istvan Rajcan, During his time with the visit germination.ca/istvan-rajcan University of Guelph, Rajcan has been a mentor to many graduate students and several plant breeders who are now active in the industry. Istvan Rajcan, Plant Breeding Hes trained 48 graduate& Genetics Award winner.students and has become an icon of guidance and leadership for them. Many of those students currently lead successful plant breeding programs in private companies like Bayer and Corteva Agriscience, and also public institutions like the University of Guelph and the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre.His favourite soybean variety that hes bred? OAC Wallace. The conventional soybean has had a big impact in Ontario and beyond. Being a savvy businessperson in addition to a breeder has been key to his successa piece of advice he learned many years ago from a Croatian plant breeder, the late Vladimir Puskaric, who was a maize breeder with Pioneer Hi-bred in Woodstock, Ont.Before we invest our time in developing a cultivar, we need to know who the customer is, and what they want. I have to constantly keep reminding seed companies that if they come up with a new trait they want in a soybean cultivar, the timeline is eight to 10 years, Rajcan says.He adds that successfully implementing double haploid technology is the next frontier in soybean development to help speed up the breeding process, and he has great hopes for the potential benefits of gene editing in the future. 8GERMINATION.CAMARCH 2022'