Apomixis: A social revolution for agriculture!

Shaping agriculture for both human needs and for environmental health can be greatly accelerated by properly developing the trait of apomixis. Apomixis is the phenomenon by which certain plants produce ‘seeds without sex’. Introduction of this trait to crop plants would allow the immediate fixing of the genetic make-up of any individual plant that responded particularly well to a given environment or social need by producing seed with identical genetic properties to the parent. This tool would enable us to adapt plants to the environment, rather than the current necessity for adapting the environment to the plants through intensive agricultural practice. In contrast to today’s hybrid technologies, it would make grain and seed once again the same, restoring farmers to their role as innovators. The introduction of this trait into crop plants would herald perhaps the single greatest change in agricultural practice since the dawn of cultivation. To achieve such a revolutionary impact, and to ensure that the impact is both environmentally and socially sound, the trait must be developed to have certain characteristics, and must be accessible to all people. We should develop a concerted, focused and strategic international research programme within the public domain to generate the trait de nova using molecular techniques.