In Kansas, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded $975,000 to Kansas State University to incorporate unmanned aerial vehicles into the process of breeding better wheat varieties. The collected imagery will match with field values to develop a phenotype of wheat varieties. Scientists will then use the phenotype to evaluate desired agronomic traits of wheat at a speed and scale much faster and larger than can be done by manual measurements.
Kansas State University has been developing uses of UAVs to collect data on thousands of plots, including work in Kansas, Mexico and India. Information from UAVs will be used to evaluate large populations of candidate varieties under field conditions in wheat-breeding nurseries, then build a database that breeders can use when developing future varieties.
The work is designed to give scientists deeper understanding of in-field conditions so they can improve breeding programs in the United States and internationally.