Grant expands the SCOPE of organic ag education

UC Davis’ student-led program in organic farming will expand to include new crops and new partners, with the aim of exporting its educational the model to other institutions. The expansion is being funded with a $2-million grant from the Organic Research and Extension Initiative, part of the United States Department of Agriculture.

At the university’s Student Farm, students already have been learning how to breed tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, dry beans, wheat, and zinnias using organic methods. They partner with Prof. Priti Saxena and students at Cal Poly Pomona to grow tomatoes in hotter, drier conditions. With the OREI grant, they will add to their fields spinach and celtuce – a type of lettuce grown for its stem and popular in Asian cuisine.

“This new grant will add a collaboration with UC Santa Cruz, as an initial step to exporting our teaching model to other institutions,” said Laura Roser, one of the coordinators for the UC Davis SCOPE Project. That stands for Student Collaborative Organic Plant Breeding Education, and includes student and faculty plant breeders working with local organic growers. The program seeks to improve varieties specifically for thriving on organic farms in California and beyond.

The partnership with UC Santa Cruz allows cultivars to be tested in locations with different conditions. UCSC also has an organic farming education program, and it’s in a cool, coastal climate. A plant breeding program will be set up there, following the model developed at UC Davis. “We have developed, tested and refined a set of resources and activities that we know engage students and is effective at teaching fundamental practices of organic plant breeding,” the SCOPE program’s grant application reads. Students, staff and faculty at UC Davis, UCSC and Cal Poly Pomona will work together to test new varieties in their respective fields and to develop educational resources for plant breeding.

The UC Davis model includes local organic farmers, seed producers and farmers’ market managers, who help to choose and evaluate plants in the breeding program. Kristin Leach, owner of Namu Farm in nearby Winters, is working with SCOPE to grow celtuce as part of a larger focus there on Asian heritage crops.

Most food crops are developed for conventional agriculture, which assumes the use of chemicals that are largely banned under U.S. and international organic guidelines. SCOPE’s purpose is to help organic farmers be profitable by developing varieties that combine natural pest and disease resistance with great flavor and higher yield. The crops SCOPE currently is working on were chosen in consultation with organic farmers and industry leaders.

The department’s grant proposal was ranked in the “outstanding” category, noted Charlie Brummer, a professor and director of the UC Davis Plant Breeding Center. SCOPE is part of both the Plant Breeding Center and the UC Davis Student Farm, where the field trials take place.

More Department of Plant Sciences people are involved in the OREI-funded project, including:

• Allen Van Deynze, director of the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center and associate director of the UC Davis Plant Breeding Center
• Jorge Dubcovsky, a distinguished professor and wheat breeding expert
• Amanda Crump, an associate professor of teaching in international agricultural development
• Christine Diepenbrock, an assistant professor and assistant plant scientist focusing on plant nutritional quality
• Allison Krill-Brown, a plant breeder in the Dubcovsky Lab
• Antonia Palkovic, an associate specialist and co-coordinator of the SCOPE program
• Colin Dixon, director of the UC Davis Student Farm, part of the the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute.

Related links

The SCOPE Project also offers internship opportunities for undergraduate students.

“Student plant breeders cultivate improved varieties of Asian celtuce”

“Student plant breeders perfect new variety of jalapeño popper pepper”

OREI grant