home news forum careers events suppliers solutions markets expos directories catalogs resources advertise contacts
 
News Page

The news
and
beyond the news
Index of news sources
All Africa Asia/Pacific Europe Latin America Middle East North America
  Topics
  Species
Archives
News archive 1997-2008
 

Organic, specialty crops get boost with new Texas A&M AgriLife Research breeder - Waltram Ravelombola joins efforts to improve specialty crop markets in Texas


Texas, USA
November 12, 2020

Specialty crops such as barley, guar, lentils and cowpea may not be as well-known as corn, cotton, wheat and sorghum, but Texas A&M AgriLife and the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences are investing in their future with the hire of a new plant breeder.


head shot of Waltram Ravelombola
 

Waltram Ravelombola, Ph.D., hired in August as a new Texas A&M AgriLife Research organic and specialty crop breeder in Vernon, is already establishing germplasm and developing genomic resources for crops of interest.

“My research focuses on developing specialty crop and row crop cultivars that are suitable to the organic cropping systems in Texas and beyond,” Ravelombola said.

Suitable specialty crops for Texas

Ravelombola said he is using a genome resequencing approach, genotyping-by-sequencing to target traits of interest to growers, such as drought, heat and salt tolerance, enhanced nitrogen fixation in legumes, disease/pest resistance and adaptability to organic farming systems.

In the coming months, Ravelombola said he will focus on generating preliminary data for these traits in order to select parent plants for crossings and to secure further funding support for his program.

Initially, he said he will focus on winter lentils, guar, cowpea and organic barley, working jointly with Texas A&M AgriLife faculty already conducting research with these crops.

“We are seeking to expand the lentil market in Texas to meet national and international demand,” Ravelombola said. “Winter hardiness, food grade and nitrogen fixation are the traits we are focusing on for the lentil project.”

Guar has an established market and is widely grown by farmers around the Vernon area, he said. However, very few guar cultivars are available on the market, making this crop highly vulnerable to climate change and disease/pest outbreaks.

Ravelombola said the cowpea acreage also is significant in Texas. This crop can generate revenue for farmers and is well-suited for crop rotations such as the winter wheat/cowpea rotation.

“I am particularly interested in developing short-season, drought- and heat-tolerant, and biofortified cowpeas,” he said.

Another area Ravelombola said he is excited to start working with is barley.

“The Texas brewing industry has increased at least four times in the last decade,” he said. “This could be a market for barley with good malting properties. In addition, organic barley is still new, and our program would like to catch up on this area.”

Ravelombola said his approach is to integrate conventional and modern tools in plant breeding. His research will focus on understanding the genetic basis of the abiotic and biotic stresses in crops and use genomic selection and high-throughput phenotyping to select varieties best suited to Texas climates.

Research experience

Prior to joining AgriLife Research, Ravelombola was a research assistant for molecular plant breeding and genetics at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. His research centered on conducting a genome-wide association study for salt and drought tolerance in cowpea.

Before going to Arkansas to further his studies, Ravelombola was a research assistant for crop improvement and plant protection at the National Center of Research Applied to Rural Development in the Department of Agronomic Research, Antananarivo, Madagascar.

He earned a master’s degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Antananarivo. At the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, he earned additional master’s degrees in cell and molecular biology and statistics and analytics, as well as a doctorate in horticulture.

 



More news from: Texas A&M AgriLife


Website: http://agrilife.org/

Published: November 13, 2020

The news item on this page is copyright by the organization where it originated
Fair use notice


Copyright @ 1992-2024 SeedQuest - All rights reserved