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NAPB Positions Plant Breeders for the Future

At its annual meeting, the National Association of Plant Breeders unveiled a new strategic plan, voted on a position statement and announced continuing education opportunities. The association covered a great deal of ground — too much to include everything here — but you can get the highlights here.

At this year’s fifth annual meeting of the National Association of Plant Breeders, which was held in conjunction with the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee’s ninth annual meeting, more than 225 plant breeders from around the world came together in Pullman, Wash., to share research, discuss industry issues and network.
The theme of this year’s meeting was “Identifying and Utilizing Genetic Diversity.”
Through the sessions and research presented, participants saw examples of how increasing the diversity of crops and the genetic diversity within crops can mitigate risk, says David Francis, NAPB president and a professor of horticulture and crop science at The Ohio State University.
“We heard many examples of how teams of agricultural scientists, including plant breeders, worked together to introduce new rotational crops, develop plant-based soil conservation strategies and improve existing crops,” Francis shares.
One of the issues that’s been a concern across the industry is how new breeding techniques will be handled in the regulatory process. Meeting attendees learned about the American Seed Trade Association’s position paper, “Promoting Innovation in Seed and Crop Plant Development.”
The NAPB Advocacy Committee discussed the ASTA position paper and endorsed it. The committee specifically highlighted the need for uniform, science-based standards for regulating new technology to maintain the genetic improvement of food, feed, fiber, shelter and greenspace while protecting the environment and ensuring food security. Such technologies should be size neutral and available to public breeders and other public scientists. NAPB felt that the principles articulated in ASTA’s paper should be extended to vegetatively propagated crops. The NAPB membership voted and passed the Advocacy Committee’s motion to endorse the ASTA position paper.
The position paper outlines five principles for government policies. These principles include:
• Government policies should be science and risk-based, predictable and promote innovation and advancements in breeding.
• Government policies should acknowledge current seed regulations and standard breeding practices that establish the current high standards for seed product integrity and varietal purity to meet customer needs and the demands of the market place.
• Governments should not differentially regulate products developed through the precision breeding tools that are similar to or indistinguishable from products resulting from more traditional breeding tools, since such similar products are not likely to pose different risks.
• Regulation and oversight, if needed, should be based on sound scientific principles and proportional to the degree to which the product presents new potential safety concerns to the environment or food/feed chain, and not based on the breeding process by which it was produced. Small changes to plant genomes, such as those occurring through traditional breeding and evolution, need to be viewed in light of the inherent diversity in plant genomes as well as the long, successful history of plant breeding and its exceptional record of safety.
• Governments should avoid creating trade barriers or disruptions due to non-harmonious policies and practices.
To read the full position paper, visit amseed.org.
Planning for the Future
Not only did meeting participants vote on the position of how new plant breeding technologies should be handled by government policies, but they also learned about the new joint strategic plan for NAPB and PBCC, which was presented by Barry Tillman, NAPB past president.
Tillman explains that the process for coming up with the strategic plan began in 2014 and included a group of both public and private sector plant breeders. A consultant was brought in to help facilitate the exchange of ideas and keep the group moving in a forward direction.
The strategic plan outlines short-term (5 years) and long-term (10 to 15 years) goals and identifies an action plan with the initial steps for achieving those goals, Tillman explains.
Additionally, he says, the plan clarifies the roles and operations of NAPB and PBCC, while increasing the organizations ability to think and manage strategically as an ongoing process.
The mission of NAPB is to “strengthen plant breeding to promote food security, quality of life and a sustainable future,” Tillman says. “We will work collectively to fulfill that mission by helping to create a future in which strong public and private sectors work independently and together to deliver varieties and improved germplasm to society.
“We’ll work to ensure that the value and importance of plant breeding to food security, quality of life and a sustainable future are known and appreciated by the public. Furthermore, our efforts will cement that plant breeding is viewed as a dynamic, problem solving and creative profession. NAPB intends to become a recognized and valued advocate for plant breeding research and education, helping to guide and implement a cohesive national plant breeding agenda.”
From the strategic planning process, Tillman outlined six goals set forth by the association:

  1. Increase support for plant breeding among decision-makers in the public and private sectors.
  2. Increase public and private support for cultivar development and germplasm improvement in public institutions.
  3. Strengthen education for plant breeding professionals at all levels of experience.
  4. Increase public awareness of plant breeding and what it contributes to the public good.
  5. Strengthen and increase the value provided to members.
  6. Strengthen the NAPB organization.

To view the strategic plan as it was presented at the 2015 annual NAPB and PBCC meeting, visit plantbreeding.org.


 

Honoring Exceptionalism

2015 Lifetime Achievement Award 
This award recognizes an individual who has given distinguished long-term service to the plant breeding discipline through research, teaching, Extension outreach and leadership.
P. Stephen Baenziger, Nebraska Wheat Growers Presidential Chair, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is the recipient of the 2015 NAPB Lifetime Achievement Award.

P. Stephen Baenziger, Nebraska Wheat Growers Presidential Chair, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is the recipient of the 2015 NAPB Lifetime Achievement Award.
P. Stephen Baenziger, Nebraska Wheat Growers Presidential Chair, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is the recipient of the 2015 NAPB Lifetime Achievement Award.

Baenziger joined the University of Nebraska faculty in 1986, after holding positions at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Monsanto. His wheat breeding program has focused on improving yield, quality for bread and noodles, disease resistance and drought tolerance. Baenziger has used every tool available, including genomics-based technologies and cytogenetics, to develop varieties to meet the world food demands in a sustainable way. He has developed and released 35 wheat varieties, which are grown on more than 60 percent of the Nebraska wheat acres and is credited with boosting the income of Nebraska farmers by $71 million. In 2013, his winter wheat varieties were recognized by the Wheat Quality Council as “Best in Show” for exhibiting the highest quality.
In addition to wheat, Baenziger has released six barley and four triticale cultivars. Furthermore, Baenziger has trained more than 50 students who have gone on to achieve greatness and wield influence across the globe. He has held numerous leadership positions, including president of Crop Science Society of America in 2003, board of trustee member for the International Rice Research Institute from 2010 to 2015, and first chair of the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee in 2007. He sets the standard for this generation of public and private plant breeders.
2015 Impact Award
Rex Bernardo, professor and Endowed Chair in corn breeding and genetics at the University of Minnesota, is recognized with the 2015 NAPB Impact Award.
Rex Bernardo, professor and Endowed Chair in corn breeding and genetics at the University of Minnesota, is recognized with the 2015 NAPB Impact Award.

The NAPB Impact Award recognizes an individual who has made significant advancements in the field of plant breeding, specifically in the area of applied variety and/or technology development.
Rex Bernardo, professor and Endowed Chair in corn breeding and genetics at the University of Minnesota, is recognized with the 2015 NAPB Impact Award.
After holding positions at Limagrain Genetics and Purdue University, Bernardo joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 2000. Recognizing that virtually all corn hybrids in the United States are developed by the seed industry, he chose to focus on contributions to breeding methods and the development of best practices for application of genomics-based technologies. He pioneered work on Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) in plants, testing strategies to employ early generation testing, and breeding strategies for use with doubled haploidy and genomic selection.
He has authored more than 90 referred publications, a number of which are seminal articles on “hot” topics in plant breeding applications. Bernardo literally wrote the book on breeding for quantitative traits in plants releasing two textbooks, which are widely used in plant breeding. In addition, he is a visionary leader in modern quantitative genetics. Bernardo has been a catalyst for change, influencing the application of new technologies in a powerful way.
2015 Early Career Award
This award recognizes a public or private sector scientist who is in the early stages of their career and active in the plant breeding field. This individual exhibits the ability to establish strong research foundations, interacts with multi-disciplinary teams and participates in professional societies relevant to their discipline.
Jennifer Yates, global soybean breeding agronomic traits lead at Monsanto, was recognized with the 2015 NAPB Early Career Award.
After earning her doctorate in 2006, Yates went to work for Monsanto as a soybean breeder in Galena, Md. She is credited with developing or co-developing 86 soybean varieties in maturity groups 3 and 5 during the transition to the Roundup Ready 2 Yield platform, facilitating sales of $1 billion. Yates also established a protocol for marker-assisted selection and implemented changes to proprietary marker-tracking software. Her work in marker development and trait mapping led to 5 marker-related patents. Yates has earned several internal awards for her accomplishments that include the development of a pollen preservation technique and elucidating the role of the rhg1 paralog in conferring soybean cyst nematode resistance. In 2011, she stepped into her current role, which involved responsibility for soybean disease and abiotic stress pipeline screening and discovery in the United States, Argentina and Brazil. Her team is engaged in the prescriptive agricultural space, facilitating early selection for resistance to new pathogens, to enable growers to produce soybeans in a more sustainable way. Additionally, she coordinates Monsanto’s internship educational program for post graduates and mentors other female scientists in crop improvement.
Student Poster Awards

First place: David Eickholt, North Carolina State University
First place: David Eickholt, North Carolina State University
Second place: Andrea Varella, Montana State University
Second place: Andrea Varella, Montana State University
Third place: Paul Sandefur, Washington State University
Third place: Paul Sandefur, Washington State University

Student Oral Awards
First place is James Heilig of Michigan State University; second place is Kathleen Russell of University of Kentucky; and third place is Jozer Mangandi of University of Florida.

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