The world population will soar to 9 billion by 2050 and the world will require around 80% more food. Scientists have, therefore, developed world’s first ‘speed breeding’technique inspired by experiments conducted by NASA.

The experiment involved providing plants with continuous light that triggers early reproduction in them. This technique is expected to increase the production threefold.

Lee Hickey, Senior Research Fellow at University of Queensland (UQ)  said that growing plants on earth using the NASA idea will accelerate the genetic gain in their plant breeding programmes.

He added that by using speed breeding techniques in specially modified glasshouses they can grow six generations of wheat, chickpea and barley plants, and four generations of canola plants in a single year – as opposed to two or three generations in a regular glasshouse or a single generation in the field.

One needn’t worry about the quality of the yield as the results of experiments have shown that plants grown under controlled climate and extended daylight conditions was as good, or sometimes better, than those grown in regular glasshouses. This technique of crop production is garnering a lot of interest across the world.

The speed breeding technique was initially used for research purposes but now has been adopted by industry. With this technique, scientists have developed the new

The speed breeding technique has largely been used for research purposes but is now being adopted by industry. In partnership with Dow AgroSciences, the  ‘DS Faraday’ wheat variety which is a high protein, milling wheat with tolerance to pre-harvest sprouting.

According to Hickey, the new technology could also have some great applications in future vertical farming systems and some horticultural crops.