Title：1：Can we breed root system for efficient water and nutrient uptake in crops?

　　　2：Water use efficiency and dryland crop production

Reporter：Professor Kadambot H.M. Siddique

Report Time：8:30-11:30 August 21th 2016

Report location： 216 Meeting Room of Agronomy College, Northwest A&F University

Reporter Personal profile:

After completion of his PhD at UWA in 1985 Professor Siddique joined the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) as a cereal crop physiologist and worked his way up to principal scientist and leader of DAFWA’s Pulse Program. He became the Director of Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) at UWA in 2001 and remained in this position until 2006 when he was appointed to establish and lead The UWA Institute of Agriculture. Professor Siddique is recognised internationally as a leader in crop science and agriculture.

Professor Kadambot Siddique is currently the Hackett Professor and Director of The University of Western Australia’s Institute of Agriculture. Professor Siddique’s research experience in crop physiology spans more than 30 years. His publications in this field are considered as key papers and are widely cited. These publications include numerous highly cited papers on adaptation of crops (including wheat and grain legumes) to water limited environments. His research focus for the past 30 years has been in crop water relations and adaptation to dryland environments. This has encompassed providing a fundamental understanding of the response of crops to water deficits, temperatures and nutrient deficiencies. Professor Siddique conducted research on adaptation of crops to water shortage and the phenological, morphological, physiological, biochemical and genetic traits that enable crops to cope with water stress.

Some of the research highlights include:

1) Identification of traits that are associated with greater wheat yields in Mediterranean environments;
2) Discovered that old cultivars of wheat are more conservative in their water use compared with modern cultivars that are more opportunistic;
3) Identified that old cultivars of wheat have larger root systems than modern cultivars that was not specifically selected for during breeding;
4) Developed ear:stem ratio as a selection criteria for harvest index and yield improvement in wheat;
5) Identified physiological differences between chickpea genotype during terminal drought;
6) Developed a number of high yielding superior legume cultivars adapted to dryland environment and commercially released in Australia;
7) Outstanding ability and experience in translational research;
8) Successfully supervised a number of PhD students in crop physiology, agronomy and genetics of field crops.

College of Agriculture
August 20, 2016