From AgFunderNews,November 30:
Peter Miller co-founded Sustain-A-Grain, a Kansas-based company commercializing perennial grains. He’s now looking for his next opportunity in sustainable agriculture. The views expressed in this guest article do not necessarily represent those of AgFunderNews.
The Midwest has lost one third of all topsoil since intensive farming began in the 1850s. Some experts argue that in 60 more years, this rich farmland in the United States will be completely devoid of usable topsoil.
Traditional annual agriculture, which relies upon tilling, can be improved significantly by no-till agriculture and cover-cropping practices. However, it still requires annual planting and machinery passes on the soil. Bolder solutions need to be developed to improve traditional farming, and perennial grains are emerging as a promising strategy for reducing the dramatic effects of our current farming approach.
Kernza: leading the perennial revolution
Kernza was developed with a simple but radical idea: perhaps our key staple grains could be made perennial, changing some of the fundamental challenges we’ve come to accept from the current system.
Kernza was developed by breeding a traditional forage called intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium) over several decades to improve the size of the grain to its (still small) current state – effectively taking the grain from the size of sesame seeds to wild rice. Farmers who plant kernza can harvest the grain for years without additional tillage or planting. They can graze it over the winter and still produce a grain crop in the summer. They can eliminate multiple tractor passes and reduce their overall cost of production. Kernza’s roots extend over 10 feet below ground. This impressive depth helps keep soil in place and helps improve water quality and filtration.
Global advancements in perennial grains
Nearly 50 years on from that development, perennial rice, sorghum, wheat, oilseeds, and legumes are making significant gains in both research and in practice worldwide. Research entities such as the University of Minnesota, Colorado State University, and USDA-Agricultural Research Service are engaging in this work, as is the private sector, including Sustain-A-Grain (a company I co-founded).
Farmers are also deeply involved as the agronomy and adaptation of these new varieties require experimentation. Major research efforts are underway across Europe, Australia, Russia, and several African countries, including Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, and Mali. And in China, perennial rice has already been commercialized since 2018, with nearly 45,000 Chinese smallholder farmers that grew it in 2021....
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Related, June 6: "As Farmers Face a Warmer Future, an Ancient Grain Shows Promise"
