UC Davis Researching New Perennial Grain Crop

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program is part of a recently awarded $10 million grant from USDA focusing on the adoption of a perennial grain, Kernza®. The Land Institute’s Tessa Peters says Kernza® is a means to begin to shift U.S. agriculture towards reduced tillage and increased carbon sequestration.

Peters… “This is a forage grass that has been grown in the United States for over a hundred years. At The Land Institute, our breeders - our plant breeders, have spent the last 20-25 years working on improving the agronomic qualities of the grain from this crop. So increasing the seed size, increasing the number of grains that come out of the hull - so free threshing ability. And increasing the uniformity of maturity so that you can harvest the entire head of the grain crop at one time. So that work has led to us having sort of a commercially viable grain, the first commercially-viable perennial grain crop that is available in the United States now. So that is what Kernza® is.”

To learn more about this perennial grain, visit kernza.org/kernzacap.