Work package 2: Testing crop resilience towards resource stress in field conditions for adaptative plasticity breeding purpose

Testing of the maize and sorghum diversity panels in field conditions

As previously mentioned, we have three Mediterranean field stations to test resilience towards nitrogen and water stresses.

I am depicting here the DiaPHEN platform from INRAE in Mauguio, South of France. The deployment of soil water status sensors combined with a water balance modeling approach is proposed to characterize the water scenarios felt by plants. The plant growth, leaf architecture and photosynthetic activity will be monitored via acquisition of airborne images delivered by drones (multispectral and thermal cameras).  

Yield components will be measured on samples of mature ears using an imaging device and analysis tools allowing access to morphological features of individual ears and kernels.