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Scientific Selection: A Century of Increasing Crop Varietal Diversity in U.S. Wheat

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  • Chai, Yuan
  • Pardey, Philip G.
  • Silverstein, Kevin A.T.

Abstract

A prevalent and persistent biodiversity concern is that modern cropping systems lead to an erosion in crop genetic diversity. Although certain trait uniformity provides advantages in crop management and marketing, farmers are also incentivized to use diverse genetics to reduce risks from change in climate, pests and markets. These risk factors have spurred increased turnover in varietal use to address complex and spatially variable genetics, environment, and crop management (GxExM) interactions to optimize crop performance. Contrary to commonly held perceptions, phylogenetically blind and phylogenetically informed diversity metrics reveal that the intensive use of scientifically selected varieties has led to significant increases in both the spatial and temporal diversity of the U.S. wheat crop over the past century.

Suggested Citation

  • Chai, Yuan & Pardey, Philip G. & Silverstein, Kevin A.T., 2022. "Scientific Selection: A Century of Increasing Crop Varietal Diversity in U.S. Wheat," Staff Papers 320518, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:umaesp:320518
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.320518
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Eric Marcon & Ivan Scotti & Bruno Hérault & Vivien Rossi & Gabriel Lang, 2014. "Generalization of the Partitioning of Shannon Diversity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(3), pages 1-8, March.
    2. Chun-Huo Chiu & Anne Chao, 2014. "Distance-Based Functional Diversity Measures and Their Decomposition: A Framework Based on Hill Numbers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Melinda Smale & Jason Hartell & Paul W. Heisey & Ben Senauer, 1998. "The Contribution of Genetic Resources and Diversity to Wheat Production in the Punjab of Pakistan," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(3), pages 482-493.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chai, Yuan & Pardey, Philip G. & Gray, Richard & Maros, Lampros Nikolaos, 2025. "Farmer versus Breeder Rights: Sharing the Benefits from Crop Varietal Improvement," Staff Papers 349220, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    2. Kym Anderson, 2023. "Agriculture's globalization: Endowments, technologies, tastes and policies," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1314-1352, September.
    3. Alston, Julian M. & Pardey, Philip G., 2022. "Are Ideas Really Getting Harder to Find?," Staff Papers 320517, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.

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