Exploring Maize Germplasm for Unserved People in Marginal Climates

Dave ChristensenSeed We Need

I became a geneticist at age 6: appearance is all about the combinations!

Life on the Flathead Reservation:

1975

It would take many years to adapt corn here.

A good crop of Painted Mountain Corn after three decades of development.

These short, efficient plants gave 105 bu/A of nutritious grain.

Painted Mountain has the colors of the rainbow and a diversity of antioxidants.

Adapted corns from the West had not

been further developed or shared widely.

Mandan IndianVillages

Big Timber

San Luis,Colorado

SouthernDents

NorthernFlints

Corn beltDents

Hopi Corn Farmer:

Native Peoples bred corn for incredible climates, from very wet to extremely dry.

Mandan corn and squash grown in hills.

A diversity of western corn genetics is maintained in Painted Mountain and delivered to the peoples of the world through this long term breeding effort.

Fantastic traditional varieties...

...provide the exotic genetics...

...for ongoing breeding...

...so we can have the Seed We Need.

The Story of Painted Mountain Corn

--FAO: 75% of Crop Diversity lost in 20th Century

--Seed Saving is not Breeding

--Gene base of commercial dent is not cold or drought tolerant

In the mid 1970s I began to breed from little used populations with regional adaptation to form a cold and drought tolerant corn.

I evaluated 2000 accessions and used about 100 in my composite.

Ideotype for Montana– Short plants, long ears, early vigor, fast maturity, drought tolerant, floury starch, hand harvest.

Technique – Detassle test accessions, use seed from best plants of best lines in composite. Follow with intense mass selection among acres of corn plants in western Montana.

This efficient little plant still produced a big ear under stress.

Desert corn out of its element:

Painted Mountain is not for every climate; others can breed for those locations with the same approach.

STRESS SELECTION TECHNIQUES:

1. Plant densely and deeply, then thin!

2. Hold back water.

3. Hold back fertilizer.

4. Grow in Montana: cold springs, very hot summer days, summer drought, early frost, hail

Select for horizontal resistance to stress over years of intense mass selection.

Natural resistance to grasshoppers.

This dwarf plant gave a 7” ear.

Future directions for Seed We Need:

--selfing and evaluation to form improved "synthetics"

--better stalks for machine harvest

--new populations evaluated for cold tolerance:

Plants Not Damaged by Frost, N. Minnesota, 1998

Pioneer Hibred Brand 3984 14%

CIMMYT Poblacion 900 27%

Painted Mountain 32%

PM x Poblacion 900 73%

--higher food quality (more lysine, more carotenes and other antioxidants)

Purple or "Morado" corn has anthocyanins, sometimes more than blueberries. These antioxidants can be beneficial for human and seed health.

Painted Mountain is introduced to the World:

Bolivia – Lowland (Chaco), failedCanada – Western, successChina – Lowland, failedIraq - ?Nicaragua – ?North Korea – Highland, successPeru – Highland, failedRussia – Siberia, successUzbekistan – Lowland, failed

When it is adapted, seed that can be saved is a great benefit to people in marginal conditions who need low cost food.

Painted Mountain provided yields 3 times those of barley in these rugged mountains. It was the seed they needed.

My message of hope and corn breedingbrought benefits to farmers living in North Korea.

The world is waiting for our gift of

diversity; let's breed the Seed We Need!