Future Prospects - Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Crop Plants - page 318

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Future Prospects
Brady A. Vick 1 * and Jinguo Hu 2
ABSTRACT
Cultivated sunflower has undergone significant improvement in yield
and other agronomic traits during the past half century. However,
non-GMO sunflower faces major challenges from insect and herbicide
resistant GMO crops such as maize and soybean for a place in the
producer 's crop rotation plan. In several sunflower producing
countries, sunflower production has shifted in recent years to marginal
production regions in response to competition from soybean and
maize. Despite displacement to less fertile growing areas, yields have
steadily increased as a result of improved hybrids. Yet the potential
for increased sunflower cultivation world-wide remains optimistic.
Many countries have identified prospective new regions for profitable
sunflower production. New advances in sunflower genomics are
expected to have enormous impact on the genetic improvement of
the sunflower crop. Likewise, expanded uses of sunflower, such as
biofuels, biolubricants, or for plant production of pharmaceuticals,
are expected to encourage increased sunflower production.
Keywords: sunflower; yield; production; expansion; genomics; uses
1 USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Northern Crop Science Laboratory, Fargo, ND
58105, USA.
2 USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Western Regional Plant Introduction Station, 59
Johnson Hall, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.