As human populations grow and resources are depleted, agriculture will need to use land, water, and other resources more efficiently and without sacrificing long-term sustainability.
In this lecture Professor R. Ford Denison will present an entirely new approach to these challenges which draws on the principles of evolution and natural selection.
Professor Denison will show how both biotechnology and traditional plant breeding can use Darwinian insights to identify promising routes for crop genetic improvement and avoid costly dead ends. He will explain why plant traits that have been genetically optimised by individual selection – such as photosynthesis and drought tolerance – are bad candidates for genetic improvement. Traits like plant height and leaf angle, which determine the collective performance of plant communities, offer more room for improvement. Agriculturalists can also benefit from more sophisticated comparisons among natural communities and from the study of wild species in the landscapes where they evolved.
Darwinian Agriculture reveals why it is sometimes better to slow or even reverse evolutionary trends when they are inconsistent with our present goals, and how we can glean new ideas from natural selection’s marvellous innovations in wild species.
Attendance is free. Register here.
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