15AGRITECHCAT3 improved crop breeding programmes through advanced pollination control bag materials technology

The project will investigate the technical and commercial feasibility of developing an innovative pollination control bag to improve crop breeding programmes used for three important agricultural crops: sugar beet, wheat and Miscanthus. Existing technologies are unfit for purpose and their use can be detremental to plant health and seed yield, and increase disease incidence and expense. A range of materials (films and nonwoven), fibre technologies and techniques will be investigated and trialled with academic and commercial breeders with the aim of developing the next generation of pollination control bags to improve breeding outcomes, reduce losses caused by poor temperature and humidity control within the bag, and increase seed yield. This will reduce costs for plant breeders and accelerate the rate at which new commercial crop varieties (with improved yields, drought, disease or pest resistance, and higher crop quality), can be discovered and brought to market.

Developing new varieties of Miscanthus (a grass used as an energy crop) requires pollination between parent plants with different characteristics. A good way of controlling this process is to carry it out within an isolated environment known as a crossing bag. These bags need to allow light penetration, control humidity and allow air circulation whilst preventing other pollen from entering the bag. The bags are conventionally made from a paper-based material. The bags have a tendency to rip easily and are prone to slug infestation, which means that the environment is no longer sufficiently isolated to ensure a controlled cross pollination. Alternative materials for crossing bags that do not have these problems therefore need to be developed. Current bags have the advantage of being relatively cheap but are single use; if bags made from alternative materials have superior properties (e.g. slug proof, better light penetration, temperature and humidity control), the greater seed set would make these alternative bag materials economically viable as they would considerably improve the efficiency of a plant breeding programme.