Researchers from the University of Saskatchewan created a model to help lentil farmers find the plants that will grow best in a world affected by climate change. The team’s new model predicts which variety of pulse crops are most likely to thrive in new environments.
Lentils are an inexpensive plant-based protein source that is important to combat food and nutritional insecurity around the world. Increased production to meet the higher global demand will have to come from either boosting yields in traditional growing areas or shift production to new locations. But to do either of these things, farmers must find the correct strain of lentils to grow.
To find the right plants, the team planted 324 lentil varieties in nine lentil production hot spots. These areas were in the U.S., Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Morocco, Spain, Italy and on two farms in Saskatchewan. The findings help producers and breeders identify varieties or create new breeds that will be successful in new environments.
The new model is based on the days to flowering (DFT), a key predictor of crop yield. DTF is determined by two factors, day length (hours of sunshine) and the mean temperature of the growing environment. The team used detailed information about each variety’s interaction with temperature and day length to feed the model.
The model can be used to predict the number of days it will take each variety to flower in the given environment. For example, lentil farmers in Nepal can use the model to identify which lines will create high yields if grown at higher temperatures. It could be used by Canadian farmers to predict the varieties that will do well in marginal production areas.
Researchers are now focused on getting the model to work in lentil breeding programs to identify genes controlling the lentil line interactions with temperature and photoperiod. When genes are identified they can develop molecular markers that will enable breeders to pre-screen seeds.
A paper on this research was published in Plants, People and Planet.
