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Plant Breeding in New Zealand PDF

303 Pages·1983·27.551 MB·English
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Plant Breeding in New Zealand G.S. Wratt and H.C. Smith (ed) Butterworths in association with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Published by Butterworths of New Zealand (Ltd) 33-35 Cumberland Place CPO Box 472 Wellington New Zealand A member of the Butterworth Group England Australia Canada New Zealand Singapore South Africa USA. in association with The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Private Bag Wellington New Zealand First published 1983 ISBN 0 409 70137 8 National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in- Publication data PLANT breeding in New Zealand/G. S. Wratt and H. C. Smith, ed. — Wellington, N.Z.: Butterworths: Dept. of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1983. — 1 v. ISBN 0-409-70137-8 631.5309931 1. Plant-breeding — New Zealand. I. Wratt, G. S., 1954- . II. Smith, Harvey C. (Harvey Caplan), 1926- . III. New Zealand. Dept. of Scientific and Industrial Research. Copyright The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, rec- ording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. Printed by Singapore National Printers (Pte) Ltd. Republic of Singapore Typeset by Quickset Platemakers Christchurch New Zealand Colour separations by Bascands Ltd Christchurch New Zealand Book Design by Jan L Hart P O Box 21-050 Christchurch New Zealand ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank all those, both within and outside DSIR, who have willingly given advice on the prep- aration of this book. A particular thanks is due to the authors who, whilst meeting the every-day demands of plant breeding research, responded to our persistant nudging and found the necessary time to produce their contri- butions. A special thanks to the consultant editor, Michael ffolliott-Foster, for his advice and enthusiasm, and to Jan Hart for the design and assembly of the book. G S Wratt H C Smith FOREWORD New Zealand has developed one of the most sophisticated farming systems anywhere in the world. In spite of the restricted land area, the difficult terrain and the previous vegetation, it has been possible through perseverance, patience and the application of science and technology to develop a highly productive primary production sector of the economy. The foundation of the pastoral industry has been the superior genetic material developed in grasses and legumes. The plant breeders have sought out new genotypes from all over the world and have adapted them to provide a high productive pasture base. From grasses to legumes, from pasture plants to crop plants, and from crop plants to horticultural, forest, protective and ornamental plants, there has been a steady increase and spread of breeding skills to encompass all the economically important plants in the country. It is timely that the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research should review developments in this field by bringing together the information contained in this volume. The book is a record of major scientific endeavour, crowned with many successes. It is a record of numerous people and their commitment to the difficult field of plant breeding, irrespective of whether it is a hobby or a career. The many contributors to the book are to be congratulated for their efforts as, in a major way, they will bring to the attention of the community the dedicated contribution of so many plant breeders in both public and private sectors. The economic base of New Zealand today is in many ways due to their dedication. This book demonstrates vividly the contribution that scientific skills in this area have made and, if anyone had thought that, perhaps, the possibilities were becoming exhausted, then what appears between these covers will refute them. Is it, that with genetic engineering, a new era of plant breeding is just developing? This really is a challenge to today's plant breeders. Dr the Hon. I J Shearer Minister of Science and Technology 8 INTRODUCTION The cultivation of productive, adapted plants provides a foundation for agriculture, horticulture and forestry. The importance and effectiveness of these industries in New Zealand is self evident, however the value of plant breeding is, perhaps, not so widely acknowledged. In the last sixty years, major efforts have been made in selecting and breeding crop, pasture, fruit, timber and soil conservation plants in this country. In order to maintain and increase diversification and yield, so as to meet increasing competion on world markets and the demands for specialisation and improved quality, a continued effort in plant breeding will be required. New Zealand is a small country, and the resources available for plant breeding cannot be large by world standards. However, production from the land is almost entirely based on plants from other regions, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, where climate and farming practices are different from those in New Zealand. Hence it is neccessary to select and breed for optimum production in this country, and a high level of plant breeding skill has developed. The majority of economically important pasture and crop plants are New Zealand-bred. The first Europeans to come to New Zealand brought with them plants from their homelands, and these formed the basis of the developing agricultural economy. Initially, natural selection acted to eliminate those plants unsuited to the New Zealand environment. This process was accelerated as farmers and other plant growers used seed from the plants which grew best and a seed trade began to form. In 1892, the Department of Agriculture was formed and, during the late nineteenth century, its Division of Biology and Pomology kept a watch on developments in Australia and the Northern Hemisphere, and imported and tested promising agricultural and horticultural plants. However, the scientific staff was limited. In 1899, one biologist, three pomologists, three vine inspectors and an entomologist were expected to provide a wide range of advice to farmers throughout the country. There was some varietal testing of imported pasture, arable, vegetable and fruit plants on the Department's experimental farms and on farmers' properties, and seed testing became an important function of the Department, but there were no attempts to select within the established cultivars or to breed new cultivars. Early in the twentieth century there were occasional rumblings about the need for plant breeding. For example, one of the Government pomologists, W J Palmer, wrote in the Department of Agriculture's 1900 annual report "I would again call your attention to the necessity of establishing experimental stations in different parts of the country, not only for the purpose of education or for trying experiments, but for systematic hybridising, and by judicious crop fertilising to improve our roots, cereals and fruits, and to obtain varieties better able to withstand the climatic changes of the country .... If the Government would take these matters in hand on a more extensive scale, I feel convinced the whole colony would soon derive a very great benefit." The first serious endeavour in plant breeding by the Department was the appointment, at the Moumahaki Experimental Station in 1912, of W S Hill as a plant breeder. He began work on the improvement of grasses, forage crops, cereals, legumes and roots. However, this work was halted by the First World War and appears not to have been resumed. During the early twentieth century, the major emphasis of the Department's pasture improvement work was on the use of fertilisers. There was, however, some pure line selection and, later, some hybridising at Lincoln College: in 1910 F W Hilgendorf began to improve the wheats of Canterbury by pure line selection and, in 1915, the pure line College Hunters was being distributed, Hilgendorf also began some work on the selection of ryegrass and cocksfoot. Major involvement in plant breeding by the Government began in the late 1920s. In 1926, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was established and, in 1928, DSIR and the Department of Agriculture began developing a plant breeding and disease research station (the Plant Research Bureau) on Massey University land at Palmerston North. In the same year certification of seed wheat and seed potatoes was begun in Canterbury. From these beginnings, the Plant Research Bureau developed strain improvement programmes for the major 9 Plant Breeding in New Zealand pasture and crop plants, and seed cerification expanded to include, by 1935, ryegrass, white clover, browntop, Montgomery red clover, cocksfoot, peas, barley, French beans, linseed, swedes and turnips. At the same time, wheat improvement was continued at DSIR's Wheat Research Institute at Lincoln. In 1936 the Plant Research Bureau became the sole responsibility of DSIR, and it was split into a number of Divisions: the Agronomy Division at Lincoln, Grasslands Division in Palmerston North, and Plant Diseases Division in Auckland. Since then, further organisations with involvement in plant breeding have arisen within DSIR: the Tobacco and Hop Research Stations, Crop Research Division, and the Division of Horticulture and Processing. Involvement with plant breeding in the forestry and soil conservation sectors has been more recent. The Forest Research Institute appointed a forest geneticist in 1951. The selection of plants for soil conservation by the Ministry of Works and Development began in the mid 1950s and, since 1970, the scope of the programme has expanded considerably. Now, for all of plants of major economic significance, there are well established selection and breeding pro- grammes in New Zealand. DSIR makes the largest contribution to these programmes, with the breeding work at Crop Research Division, Grasslands Division, the Division of Horticulture and Processing and the Riwaka Research Station. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is more involved with testing than in the development of new cultivars, however, the Levin Horticultural Research Station does some selection work on horticultural crops. The Ministry of Works and Development Plant Materials Centre has a breeding programme for soil conser- vation plants; the Forest Research Institute are developing seed orchards of improved forestry species; and private involvement in plant breeding is growing. Much has been achieved since plant breeding began in New Zealand some sixty to seventy years ago. Today, New Zealands' cropping and pastoral industries are almost entirely based on locally bred cultivars, and the horticul- tural industry relies heavily on the testing and selection of overseas material by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, DSIR and private firms; breeding has also considerably improved the quality of forestry and soil conser- vation trees and new ornamental cultivars are continually being developed. Until recently, plant breeding has been largely confined to State-funded organisations. However, now, as invest- ment in selection and breeding is increasing on a world-wide scale, and with the establishment of a plant patenting system — Plant Variety Rights, the involvement of private enterprise in this country has been stimulated. More and more improved overseas material is finding its way into New Zealand. There is, however, little doubt that continued selection and breeding will be needed to keep this country to the forefront of agricultural, horticultural and forestry production, and this book sets out to delineate plant breeding programmes which provide a basis for meeting the challenges of future development. G S Wratt July 1983 10 Crop Plant Breeding in New Zealand T P Palmer, M Agr Sc; a review of the principles of arable crop plant breeding, deputy director, Crop Research Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Christchurch; plant breeder. Wheat G M Wright, M Sc; cereal breeder, Crop Research Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Christchurch. Barley G D Coles, B Sc; barley breeder, Crop Research Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Christchurch. Maize R K Bansal, M Sc, Ph D; maize, sweetcorn. maize and sweetcorn breeder, Crop Research Division, DSIR, Pukekohe Research Station, Cronin Road, Pukekohe RD 1. Other Cereals G M Wright, M Sc; oats, ryecorn, triticale. cereal breeder, Crop Research Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Christchurch. Potatoes R Genet, M Hort Sc; potato breeder, Crop Research Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Christchurch. Peas W A Jermyn, M Agr Sc, Ph D; pulse breeder, Crop Research Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Christchurch. 11 Plant Breeding in New Zealand Forage Brassicas T P Palmer, M Agr Sc; swedes, turnips, rape kale. deputy director, Crop Research Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Christchurch; plant breeder. 12 1 Crop Plant Breeding in Mew Zealand T P Palmer Cropping in New Zealand ation is very large. Plant breeders attempt to assemble The major field crops grown in New Zealand are wheat, this variation into cultivars which can be grown more barley, oats, maize, peas and forage brassicas. The areas profitably in the physical, biological and commercial of each grown in 1980 are shown in Table 1.1 environment in which we grow our crops. Because it normally takes several years to develop new cultivars, a degree of speculation is needed to envisage how crops Table 1.1 Area of New Zealand's major field crops (1980) will be grown and handled in the future, and the need Area for new crop products. Wheat 87 519 ha Organised scientific plant breeeding has been applied Oats 28 471 ha to most of the world's important crops within the last Barley 68 834 ha hundred years. Before that major crop plants such as Peas 25 401 ha wheat, corn or rice had been domesticated for thousands Maize 19 696 ha of years, during which time cultural and natural selec- Forage brassicas 152 520 ha tion had altered them considerably and led to the pro- duction of regional strains, or land races, which were (Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Agricultural reasonably well adapted to the regions in which they Statistics 1980/81) were grown. The farm gate value of wheat alone is about $61 m. The understanding and application of genetics, sta- Although they do not occupy a major part of New tistical methods, crop geography, crop evolution, bio- Zealand's farmland (approximately 382 400 ha or 2.6 chemistry and plant physiology have resulted in the per cent of the country's farmland) field crops have been large advances made in the development of new crop grown since New Zealand was first settled and are a cultivars since World War II. Plant breeding has been stable and important part of the country's agricultural one of the keystones of the green revolution in less devel- production. Cropping is a more efficient form of land oped countries, and one of the foundations of the enor- use than grazing and occupies a greater area than horti- mous increase in agricultural productivity in the culture (area in horticulture in 1980, 48 536 ha). Field developed countries (see Table 1.2). crops provide an essential backup animal feed in times Some of the gains have come from better adaptation of pasture shortage eg, in the South Island winter, and to the physical environment and to particular day- wheat and peas are staple human diet items. Peas are lengths and temperatures. The proportion of crop which also a significant export earner ($6.2 m in 1980). is commercially usable has been considerably increased, The main field crop-growing area in New Zealand for example by increasing the grain to straw ratio in is Canterbury (171 000 ha in 1980), followed by Otago the cereals. Considerable contributions have come from and Southland. Significant areas of maize are grown in resistance to pests and diseases. Resistant cultivars can South Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay and East often make the difference between profit and loss in Coast. However, land use for field crops is coming under cropping and give more reliable yields. They may re- increasing competition from horticulture in these re- duce the use of chemical fungicide and insecticide. gions. Small areas of field crops are grown in other parts As the quality of cultivars improves so the breeder of the country. is pressured for further improvements; eg — in the course of wheat breeding, although bread can be, and The Purpose of Plant Breeding has for thousands of years been baked from any wheat, Most species of crop plants have a wide range of vari- the baker demands high quality "bread" wheat. The ation in many important characteristics. Some plants market requirements, hence the relative prices of differ- are tall and some short, some are resistant to one pest ent cultivars, are not absolutely fixed, but are deter- and some to another, some require long days for flower- mined by the characteristics and availability of other ing while some flower in short days. The range of vari- cultivars. So, to a considerable degree, the qualities 13 Plant Breeding in New Zealand Table 1.2 Yield kg/ha for wheat, rice and maize in 1950 and 1980 Wheat Rice Maize 1950 1980 1950 1980 1950 1980 World 1050 1870 1600 2750 1580 3000 India 660 1440 1100 2050 650 1240 Europe 1480 3760 4300 4890 1320 4480 Africa 720 1020 1200 1710 840 1220 North America 1160 2130 2200 4030 2210 4730 New Zealand 2730 3560 3710 8070 (Source: FAO Production Yearbook 1980) which the market place demands from the breeder are in Mexico, is an example of a cultivar well-adapted in not determined by the consumer. They are determined New Zealand and many other countries by what sorts of cultivars other breeders, or the breeder Many diseases and pests have only recently arrived himself, has to put on offer in the market place. in New Zealand, and in many cases local cultivars were It is important that New Zealand producers have susceptible, although resistant cultivars were available good cultivars, the produce from which sell well in com- from overseas breeders. This has led to the replacement petition with produce from cultivars available to other of susceptible New Zealand cultivars with resistant im- producers. If our cultivars are deficient in yield or re- ported ones. Lucerne cultivars resistant to bacterial wilt liability of yield, if produce from them costs more to replaced the susceptible local cultivar Wairau; stripe produce, or is not as valuable as produce from cultivars, rust-resistant wheats from Europe are replacing suscep- in other countries, then our producers will not be as tible local cultivars. well rewarded as those in other countries, and will not Foreign cultivars with some novel and valuable be able to compete effectively in world markets. character may replace local cultivars until local cul- If the crop produce is used in New Zealand, and our tivars incorporating this character are bred. Triumph cultivars are substandard, the produce will cost more barley, with a low gum (beta glucan) content has re- and not be so satisfying to New Zealand consumers. cently been introduced, and has established a new stan- Crop plant breeding hence contributes to the eco- dard for brewing quality. It is an example for New nomic well being and the quality of life in New Zea- Zealand barley breeders to follow and a parent for them land. to use in their own breeding programmes. When imported cultivars replace local cultivars for History of Plant Breeding in New Zealand these reasons, the replacement will probably be only All our crop plants were originally imported, and almost temporary as New Zealand breeders use the imported all evolved and were bred in the Northern Hemisphere. cultivars to breed even better adapted, local cultivars. In New Zealand summer temperatures are about 5°C So Rongotea, Oroua and Tiritea wheat have replaced cooler then in most places of similar latitudes in the Karamu, and Rere lucerne is replacing imported resist- Northern Hemisphere and winter temperatures are ant cultivars. Despite temporary replacement of local warmer. New Zealand daily temperatures fluctuate cultivars, the New Zealand breeding capacity must be more, there is generally more wind, and soils are thinner maintained to produce locally adapted cultivars. and more acid than in the great northern agricultural New Zealand cultivars may be superseded, however, regions. Our disease and pest problems are different. for another reason. They may be replaced because the Market requirements within New Zealand are also often local breeding input does not compete, either in volume different. For all these reasons, the cultivars originally or in expertise, with overseas breeding inputs. In such introduced from overseas into New Zealand agriculture cases, to continue breeding in isolation in New Zealand were not tailored to fit New Zealand farming. There would be to waste resources which would be better spent has been a general tendency for cultivars introduced on breeding other crops. Needs for specially adapted from overseas to be replaced by cultivars produced here. local cultivars should be met by co-operating with This development began sooner, has been more rapid, foreign breeders, not by trying to compete with them. and has gone further with some crops than with others; Most of the vegetable crops grown mainly for local con- with some it has not yet begun. sumption are probably in this category because the local The change to local cultivars began before the begin- industry is too small to support the expense of breeding ning of organised breeding here, and some of the early which may be as high for a crop grown on a small area innovators are unknown. Tuscan wheat, the principal as a large one. cultivar grown before 1940, Aucklander Short Top po- tatoes and Pukekohe Long Keeper onions were all selec- Methods of Crop Improvement ted and propagated by local growers. The first crop cultivar improvement in New Zealand By 1950, almost all wheat and rape crops were sown came from the introduction of new cultivars from other to New Zealand cultivars, by 1970 almost all peas, lu- countries. Farmers grew them, and the word passed cerne, oats and potatoes. In more recent years another round if some were better than others. contrary change has been occurring. Overseas breeders The next step was taken when growers and scientists have been looking at wider horizons and have begun began selecting what they considered to be better plants producing cultivars with adaptation to a wide range of from cultivars that were being grown and multiplying environments. Some of these have replaced local cul- them for distribution as improved seed. This, combined tivars in a number of countries. Karamu wheat, pro- with progeny tests of the selected plants in scientifically duced from an international breeding programme based conducted trials, and with an organised pedigree system 14

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