Crop production and Farming systems

UC Davis Awarded $6.5 Million to Develop AI Breeding Tool for Crops

A team of researchers from University of California, Davis, has been awarded a $6.5 million grant to use 3-D modeling, artificial intelligence and crop genetics to develop a tool to improve and accelerate breeding pipelines for legumes and sorghum.

Funding for the project, known as GEMINI*, comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dan Putnam receives the James H. Meyer Distinguished Service Award

“Ice cream in the making” – this is the unusual designation given to alfalfa by Dan Putnam, a Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis.

Alfalfa is often overshadowed by California’s more famous vegetable and fruit crops, like nuts and wine, despite the key roles it plays for our food systems. It’s a highly productive crop that serves as the basis for milk, cheese, leather, honey and wool production. In other words, what lies behind the carton of ice cream on the refrigerator shelf is a field of alfalfa.

Gail Taylor

  • Distinguished Professor and John B Orr Endowed Professor in Environmental Plant Sciences and Chair of the Department of Plant Sciences
  • Faculty
  • Department Chair
  • Plant Sciences Executive Committee - Chair
Plant adaptation to a changing climate, genetics and genomics of leafy salad crops, non-food woody biomass crops for bioenergy. Sustainability, ecosystem services, plants and the Sustainable Development Goals.
1210 PES
UC Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis CA 95616

Daniel H. Putnam

  • Professor Emeritus of Cooperative Extension
Alfalfa and forage crop systems, cellulosic biofuels, crop ecology, new/alternative crops and cropping systems. Strong interest in irrigation, salinity, forage quality, genetics & varieties.
2240 PES
UC Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis CA 95616