Plant breeding innovations

What are plant breeding innovations?

Canadian farmers use some of the world’s most progressive and innovative technologies, including modern plant breeding, to grow crops more efficiently and sustainably than ever before.

The result is stronger, healthier and more useful varieties of crops.

Since the dawn of agriculture, farmers have worked hard to improve the quality and yield of their crop and reduce unfavourable traits like tough skins or hard seeds. These forward-thinking ancestors were the first plant breeders. Today’s plant breeders have carried on this tradition by using plant breeding innovations such as genetic engineering and gene editing to introduce beneficial traits, modify existing genes and remove detrimental ones.

Plant breeding innovations are important tools for developing new and improved crop varieties that are more resilient, productive and require fewer resources to grow. Additionally, they support the agriculture sector’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and sequester carbon into the soil.

Plant breeding has increased crop productivity by 50 percent over the last century. (source)