- AI is dramatically accelerating crop breeding, says IRRI chief
- First agricultural genomics centre opens in the Philippines
- Researchers will start working on rice before moving onto other crops
Agricultural genomics is entering a transformative phase as AI slashes the time and cost required to identify valuable traits for crop improvement.
For decades, plant breeding and genetic research relied on conventional methods that required significant time and resources to identify useful traits. Today, AI-powered tools are changing that equation.
These technologies are helping researchers unlock insights from vast genetic collections in less time and with less money. This is creating new opportunities to address some of agriculture’s most pressing challenges.
“We have been using conventional technologies, and now that we can use things like machine learning and AI, we can do the same things 10 times faster and 16 times more cheaply than we could ever do them before,” said Dr Yvonne Pinto, director general of IRRI.
“For IRRI, it took 52 years to screen 20,000 of our germplasm samples. Using machine learning and AI, it has taken 18 months to screen 60,000.”
By analysing larger datasets in a fraction of the time, scientists can identify valuable genetic traits for crop improvement much faster, helping agriculture adapt to the growing challenges posed by climate change.
“Given the massive changes in our environment and the frequency of these weather events, it gives us the tools we need to address things much more quickly and much more efficiently. Things like heat tolerance, saline tolerance from ocean incursions, flooding and drought in the same growing season - those are the elements this is enabling,” said Pinto.
Genomics is also being used to identify ways to improve resource-use efficiency, enabling crops to maintain yields while requiring less seed, fertiliser and water.
“It’s a bold new era for bold new players. We need to get in there to work out the problems. We need to work together, and we need to ensure that the solutions we’re able to produce are informed by evidence and data,” said Pinto.
Dr Yvonne Pinto will take the stage at the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit, which will be held in Singapore from 27 to 29 October.
New genomics research center launches
Against this exciting backdrop, the Philippines recently celebrated the opening of its first dedicated facility for agricultural genomics.
The Agricultural Genomics Research Center (AGRC) was established to be a “national hub for advanced genomics, bioinformatics, and related technologies for agricultural research and crop improvement”.
Located at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), AGRC was driven by a US$14.95m project funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), in partnership with UPLB and IRRI as project management consultant.
The institute is intended to support a wide range of crops. However, rice will be the initial focus as IRRI maintains the world’s largest rice gene bank.
“Because this all sits adjacent to IRRI, it’s probably going to be one of the first elements that that institute will start to engage with in order to revolutionise our insights into what are the genetics that we can use to address the constraints we see in the farming system,” said Pinto.
Pinto added that more than 3,000 rice genomes have already been sequenced, including Philippine heritage varieties.
These resources provide a strong foundation for research and for developing methods that can later be used for other crops.
According to Pinto, the institute’s near-term objective is to build expertise and human capacity.
Efforts will centre on training students and researchers. Scholarships and academic opportunities will be available both locally and through partnerships with Korean universities.
“They will have opportunities to engage with cutting-edge, breakthrough science methods knowledge in order to advance this field. It’s a really nice contribution to the field of genomics, but also for rice, for Korea, for the Philippines, and for IRRI,” said Pinto.
“The secret to all of this is that no one organisation can do this, and so the ability to find ways to work together. I think that’s going to be the secret sauce.”
‘A beautiful story of giving back’
Pinto highlighted the historical relationship between Korea, the Philippines and IRRI that make the opening of the institute particularly meaningful.
“In the 1970s, IRRI produced a variety for Korea called Tongil, and Tongil was the variety that enabled Korea to become self-sufficient in rice and start its journey towards industrialisation. The Philippines also contributed a significant number of soldiers to help with the Korean War.
“For Korea to invest in the history of the support provided by the Philippines and the food security provided by IRRI enables a new era of knowledge exchange and capability building. It’s a beautiful story of giving back the benefits from many years ago.”
