The scope of a plant breeder's job keeps expanding. @szintri illustrated this using the diagram below. Every time a new field develops it is incorporated into a breeder's job. This is why it is the case and what it mean for the future of plant breeding.
#agriculture #Biology
#agriculture #Biology
Each field incorporated into plant breeding over the last couple of decades, consists of many sub-fields. Although plant breeders do not need to be experts in each field, they do need to be knowledgeable about the field and new developments in the fields.
A quick look at any plant breeding text book will reveal that a plant breeder needs knowledge about many older fields as well, meaning this process of incorporation has been going on since the start of agriculture. And there are no signs that this process will stop!
It is helpful to borrow a concept from economics, namely transaction costs. If it is easier for a plant breeder to quickly do something him/herself, then that task will become part of the job. Meaning that the internal transaction cost is lower than the external transaction cost.
This means that as new tools and processes are developed in these fields some will be insourced into a breeder's job, while others will be outsourced to experts in the various fields.
As software and hardware continue to develop, some laborious tasks will become automated and will move from the domain of experts into that of breeders. However, as fields become more complex, breeders will likely start to rely on experts for many other tasks.
An example of both abovementioned trends is the reduction in the cost of DNA sequencing. This reduction has increased the importance of genetics in breeding (breeders need to have a thorough grasp on genetics), but it has also increased the need for experts.
Entire careers are based on extracting information from the huge amounts of genetic data generated over the last decade. Plant breeders will eventually incorporate some of this information into their programs.
Many other technologies are advancing and might influence the future of plant breeding. Smartphones are supercomputers in our pockets. They have better cameras than any plant breeder could dream of year ago.
Some also come equipped with processing units designed specifically for running AI (e.g. Google Pixel). The potential for smartphones to become more incorporated into the increasingly data heavy field of plant breeding seems pretty good.
The same applies to cloud computing, drone technology, robotics, etc.
This is innovation outside the plant breeding industry. Huge improvements inside the industry are also being made, but that will be covered in a future thread.
This is innovation outside the plant breeding industry. Huge improvements inside the industry are also being made, but that will be covered in a future thread.
I highly recommend you watch @szintri's talk here: youtube.com
and you can find the data for DNA sequencing prices here: genome.gov
and you can find the data for DNA sequencing prices here: genome.gov
If you are interested in more threads on plant breeding and biotech please follow me. Likes and retweets will also be appreciated.
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