Scientific Selection: A Century of Increasing Crop Varietal Diversity in U.S. Wheat

Yuan Chai, Philip Pardey and Kevin A.T. Silverstein

No 320518, Staff Papers from University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics

Abstract: A prevalent and persistent biodiversity concern is that modern cropping systems lead to an erosion in crop genetic diversity. Although certain trait uniformity provides advantages in crop management and marketing, farmers are also incentivized to use diverse genetics to reduce risks from change in climate, pests and markets. These risk factors have spurred increased turnover in varietal use to address complex and spatially variable genetics, environment, and crop management (GxExM) interactions to optimize crop performance. Contrary to commonly held perceptions, phylogenetically blind and phylogenetically informed diversity metrics reveal that the intensive use of scientifically selected varieties has led to significant increases in both the spatial and temporal diversity of the U.S. wheat crop over the past century.

Keywords: Crop; Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42
Date: 2022-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:umaesp:320518

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.320518

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